


Courage

by Jcapasso916



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-10 14:26:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 59,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5589625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jcapasso916/pseuds/Jcapasso916
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stranded and powerless in a post-apocalyptic world, Gabriel and Sam struggle to survive. No M-preg.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Gabriel cloaked himself as he saw Lucifer walk into the hotel ignoring the pounding in his chest. He needed to get out of here, and quickly. Somehow he just couldn’t bring himself to leave though. Dean was right. He couldn’t just let them die. What was the life of one screw-up when compared to the lives of heroes? He transported himself back into the ballroom, pressed the dvd with his final message into Dean’s hands and stepped out to face his brother. To use his life to buy the others precious time and hoped that maybe this sacrifice might make up in some small way for everything he had destroyed in his lifetime. 

When Gabriel pressed the dvd into Dean’s hands, the hunter’s eyes met the archangel’s as he nodded almost imperceptibly. Dean knew what it meant, and tried to communicate his respect and gratitude with that look. This made up for everything that the trickster had done to them in the past. He was sacrificing his life to give them a chance to escape. He was glad that Sam didn’t catch it. No matter how much he disliked the guy, he was unlikely to take kindly to the idea. Dean didn’t exactly like it either, but what choice did they have. 

Gabriel’s mask of indifference firmly fixed on his face he mocked his brother, “Luci! I’m home!” Lucifer seemed to have a one track mind though because he just started to charge towards Kali, still on the ground behind him. Gabriel cut him off though, blade held high. “Not this time,” he said firmly, before turning and calling over his shoulder, “Guys. Get her out of here.” He knew that they wouldn’t just walk away from the fight without a reason and he hoped that protecting Kali, despite what she was, would be enough of a reason for them. Or enough of a reason to assuage their consciences at least, because he knew how badly they wanted out.

Sam knew what a risk Gabriel was taking for them. Unlike Dean though, he thought that Gabriel had a chance. He didn’t take his eyes off the archangel’s steady stance, like he was ready to spring at any moment, not leaving a break in his defenses that the devil could break through. As they reached the door Gabriel glanced back for a moment and his eyes met Sam’s. Sam placed a hand on his back for support and Gabriel gave a firm nod. 

They were almost out the door. He felt Sam’s hand, comforting against his back as they were leaving, but then all hell broke loose as Michael, in his backup vessel, showed up. Gabriel turned white as a sheet. This was so not good. If Michael was here then the showdown was about to begin, even without their true vessels. Before anyone could react, both archangel’s powered by the souls of their vessel’s burst into their true forms. Gabriel flung his wings wide and focused his grace into protection and then knew no more.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam woke with a groan. Every nerve ending in his body felt like it was on fire. His muscles ached, his head was pounding, and his breaths were heavy and ragged. He felt a weight on his chest and looked down to find an unconscious, battered, and bleeding archangel. “Gabriel!” he cried in shock, while reaching his too heavy arms to try to check for a pulse or breathing or anything to indicate whether he was still alive. Sam sighed with relief when he both found a pulse, and felt the steady, but shallow breaths puffing from Gabriel’s mouth. 

He knew he really shouldn’t be moving the archangel in his condition, but he couldn’t exactly lie there forever so he eased Gabriel’s weight up as gently as possible and slowly slid out from under him, placing him gently back on the ground in the same position, moving him as little as possible. Once free, he pulled himself painfully to his feet and looked around to see…nothing. Nothing at all but barren wasteland as far as the eye could see. He was glad that Kali had seen fit to give them back their weapons and supplies when they had made the deal with her. Well all the weapons except for the stakes obviously. Of course, given the situation he would have gladly traded every weapon he had for a few more bottles of water and protein bars.

He and Dean had taken to keeping more holy water than usual on them ever since the hell gate opened, so at least he had enough water for a few days and he could ration the protein bars. It took a lot longer to die of hunger than of thirst though and he hoped that he would be able to find some supplies before they ran out, or that Gabriel would wake up in time to snap something up…if Gabriel woke up at all. Sam looked worriedly at the unconscious archangel. He was debating whether it would be better to head out now to look for some supplies or wait until Gabriel woke up. In the end, he couldn’t just leave Gabriel here alone…injured and helpless…no matter what that meant for him.

Inventory done and plan made Sam was able to turn his mind to other things, namely worry about Dean. His brother had been right behind him, but where was he now. Where was Sam now for that matter? Had he still been touching Gabriel and Gabriel tried to flee dragging Sam unwillingly along for the ride? Gabriel’s condition…and his own for that matter, didn’t bode well for that thought. There was obviously some sort of blast and Gabriel had taken the brunt of it, shielding Sam, intentionally or not. What if they were blasted away and Dean was sent in a different direction and was lying somewhere like Gabriel, hurt and unconscious. 

Sam supposed that if that was the case then there was a good chance that Kali was with him, as he was sure that Dean had a firm grip on Kali when it happened, but would she be in any better shape? If it could knock Gabriel out so completely what hope did Kali have? Sam forced back a sob. What hope did Dean have? What the hell had happened back there? Sam fought the urge to pace. If there was one thing he knew about survival it was that you didn’t want to sweat any more than absolutely necessary when your water supply was short and it was pretty warm out. Sam shucked out of his jacket and his over shirt, leaving just his undershirt. He considered getting rid of his heavy jeans as well and just leaving his boxers, but decided against it for the moment. If it got much hotter though…

He also took off his socks and shoes. He would have to put them back on if he was going to be walking anywhere. There was no telling what could be hiding under all this dirt, but as long as he was stationary he could leave them off. He sat down cross legged on top of his spread out jacket and pulled out, counted and arranged his supplies around them, making sure the caps were secure on the bottles of water especially. In addition to being the most vulnerable, it was also the thing he could least afford to lose. He was glad he had a habit of staying well hydrated. It would take longer for him to become dehydrated. 

Judging by the position of the sun it was approximately midday before he heard a groan next to him as Gabriel started to stir. Sam turned quickly to his knees beside the archangel and placed a hand gently on his back. “Easy Gabriel. Don’t try to move just yet. You’re hurt pretty bad.”

“Did anyone get the number of the train that hit me?” he joked weakly while taking mental inventory of all of his aches and pains. Sam had already checked for broken bones and gushing wounds and found none. Most of his external injuries appeared to be superficial at least, but Sam had no idea how to check for internal injuries. 

Sam found his mouth twitching into an almost smile at the archangel’s levity. “How are you feeling Gabriel?” he asked worriedly. 

“Just peachy. What the hell happened?” He asked as he slowly sat up wincing in pain. 

“I was going to ask you the same thing. The last thing I remember was Michael showing up and him and Lucifer charging towards each other, then waking up here, wherever here is.”

At Sam’s words Gabriel’s memory came rushing back and what little color he had remaining promptly faded as he closed his eyes against the horrible memories. When he opened them again, Sam could see the unconcealed pain in them as he looked around and he had a bad feeling he knew exactly what happened. “We’re the only ones that made it?” he asked afraid of the answer. Sam swallowed the lump in his throat at that question and just managed a nod. 

“So where are we?”

Gabriel looked around again. “I’m not sure. If we’re lucky enough to get a clear night I’ll be able to tell you when the sun goes down.”

Sam was a little surprised that Gabriel could orient himself by the stars like that, but then remembered that Gabriel probably helped build half the stars so it wasn’t that impressive. Sam then turned to the big question. The one that would determine how urgent their next step was. “So can you use your mojo? We are kinda short on supplies so if you can snap some up or better yet, fly us out of here that would be great.”

Gabriel shrugged and snapped his fingers, cursing when nothing happened. He cursed even louder when he realized that he was both hungry and thirsty. “Well looks like we’re shorter than you thought since I’m essentially human for the time being,” he spat angrily. 

Sam sighed. That was the last thing they needed, but he certainly wasn’t going to let the archangel die, especially since he was only in this situation because he had tried to save them. He grabbed one of the bottles of water and poured himself a capful, careful not to spill any then did the same for Gabriel. “We’ll have to ration. We’ll start walking as soon as the sun goes down. Hopefully you’ll be able to tell where we are so we know the best direction to head. Do you think you can walk?” Sam asked hopefully. This would be a hundred times harder if he had to carry the archangel. 

“I’ll manage,” Gabriel said sullenly pulling his knees to his chest and resting his head on them. 

Sam, fully expecting to get ribbed on for this comment suggested, “You should probably take off your top layers too before you start to sweat. You want to keep as much water in your body as you can since we are rationing.” Sam knew that something was really wrong with Gabriel when he didn’t even get a joke about getting him out of his clothes and Gabriel just silently complied, copying Sam and pulling off his socks and shoes as well before resting his head back on his knees. 

The spent the hours in silence until the sun went down, Gabriel thinking about what had happened and hoping against hope that his suspicions weren’t correct and praying to father that he didn’t think would even care that his loss of power was only temporary. He ignored the quiet sniffles coming from the tall hunter next to him as he mourned the probable loss of his brother and refrained from making a sarcastic comment about keeping as much water in his body as possible.


	3. Chapter 3

Once the sun was down Sam looked up at Gabriel expectantly who was scanning the sky. After a few minutes he closed his eyes tiredly. His suspicions were confirmed he turned to Sam with watery eyes. “We’re in southwestern Wisconsin. We need to head that direction,” he said pointing east. 

“What? That’s not possible. Your map must be off. There are no deserts in Wisconsin and no way is it this hot in April!” Sam exclaimed. 

“Well that’s where we are so deal with it,” Gabriel snapped at him. 

Sam narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Gabriel what’s going on?” His mind was running through all sorts of possibilities like time travel, alternate dimensions, and such but what Gabriel explained had never even crossed his mind. 

“Well apparently Mikey and Luci had their big clash and, like expected, destroyed half the world or more and I’d bet you anything this ‘desert’ is just a big impact crater,” he said in a clipped tone before pointing east once more. “That direction is the great lakes…if they are still there…but our best and closest option for fresh water which as I understand is our most urgent need at the moment. Any more stupid questions?”

Sam gaped at him for a moment, waiting for the punchline, but seeing in the firm set of his jaw and his refusal to look at Sam that he was telling the truth, Sam had to fight himself not to wretch. They had failed. The world was destroyed and it was all his fault. Everyone was dead. No. Not everyone. He had an injured and nearly human archangel to take care of. There was still one being left to save before he could let himself wallow in misery. He would get Gabriel taken care of, and hopefully as good as new. That was his new mission and the only thing that could get him going now. One last mission. 

Sam packed a gun and two knives into his pants handing the remaining gun and knife to Gabriel who did the same. Sam then packed up the rest of their supplies, wrapped them in his flannel shirt which he then hung around his neck and ignored his own pain as he pulled himself to his feet before bending to help Gabriel stand. 

Gabriel was unsteady on his feet and very much favoring his right leg but pushed Sam away when he tried to help him. “I’m fine,” he barked irritated. He was an archangel for crying out loud. He had been in more battles than he could count. He didn’t need help with something as minor as walking. Sam wisely backed off, but kept a close eye on Gabriel, ready to help when needed. 

“Do you know about how far we are from the nearest lake?” Sam asked. 

“Probably about a hundred and fifty miles give or take,” Gabriel said almost amicably. 

Sam did some quick math. With two of them rationing they might be able to stretch their water out two days…then another day before they were too weak to walk so they would have to make fifty miles a day, while injured. It definitely wouldn’t be easy, but he wasn’t a Winchester for nothing. They were known for doing the impossible. Sam started surreptitiously shorting his own water during their water stops, giving himself only half a capful. It would be enough to keep him going, if only barely. If Gabriel hadn’t been injured he would have just given all of it to the archangel and let him go on, but Gabriel would need help eventually, no matter how proud or stubborn he was. 

Sam was glad they were walking all night because it started to get pretty chilly. He remembered reading something about how sand couldn’t hold heat like other ground covers do and without any trees or anything to help all the heat was being sucked out of the air. He wished they had brought their jackets, but they needed to travel as light as possible and as long as they kept moving they would be fine. 

Sam was amazed at Gabriel’s stamina, but supposed he wasn’t an archangel for nothing. Still, even he couldn’t keep it up for long as injured as he was and a few hours later he stumbled. Sam, who had been watching closely, caught him before he hit the ground. Gabriel once again pushed him away once he was steady on his feet again, but his leg buckled with the next step again and Sam had to catch him again. “Are you going to let me help you now or are you going to keep being stubborn?” Sam asked wryly. 

Gabriel glared at him, but didn’t push him away again and Sam hunched over enough to get Gabriel’s arm over his shoulder and they continued walking. It was awkward and uncomfortable given the height difference, but they made it work. They continued walking after the sun came up. It was roughly mid-morning before they were too sweaty and exhausted to continue any longer. Sam helped Gabriel to the ground and took a look at his leg. He could see how tight Gabriel’s jeans were around his knee, and given the generally loose fit of his jeans that worried Sam greatly. “Shit Gabriel. Why didn’t you say anything? We have to get some of the pressure off that knee.” The pants were nearly bursting at the seams and if Gabriel wasn’t careful he might end up losing his whole leg if he didn’t get his powers back.

Sam pulled out his knife and thought for a moment. He would try to cut up as far as he could go and then tear it the rest of the way. There was no way he was going to be able to cut over the knee without cutting his knee up along with it, but cutting off the whole pant leg would make things more difficult when it got cooler at night. “It’s fine Sam,” Gabriel said shortly. 

“No. It’s not. I know you’re hoping your powers will come back. I am too. But if they don’t you could lose your whole leg if it stays like that. Actually, unless we happen to find a living doctor and a working hospital, you would be more likely to die from infection when your leg starts to rot.” Sam knew that beating around the bush wouldn’t help and if Gabriel was going to let him help at all he was going to have to give it to him straight. Gabriel finally sighed and nodded. If he didn’t get his powers back, he wasn’t sure how much living appealed to him, but dying from infection from a rotted limb didn’t sound like the best way to go anyway. 

At the permission, Sam cut and tore the pant leg until his knee was free and blanched at the swelling and bruising he could see. He knew it wasn’t broken, but it was in pretty bad shape regardless. He couldn’t believe that Gabriel had walked on it as long as he had and his respect for the archangel only grew. Sam dished out some more water and laid Gabriel down, moving his makeshift pack under his leg so that the knee was elevated. Gabriel glared at him once more for treating him like he was fragile, before he closed his eyes and was lost to oblivion. Sam quickly followed him to sleep. 

Sam woke first as the sun was just starting to set and got their stuff together before waking Gabriel and handing him a power bar. As Gabriel was eating it he looked questioningly at Sam. “You’re not having one?” 

“I already did,” Sam lied easily, before dishing out double caps of water since they had been out for nearly ten hours. Gabriel finished the power bar in three bites, downed his water, and grudgingly accepted Sam’s assistance getting to his feet. Like yesterday though, he wouldn’t let Sam help him walk. 

“It’s feeling much better. I’ll be fine,” Gabriel lied just as well as Sam. He was going to be as little of a burden as possible on the hunter. It was feeling better, but he knew it was far from healed. Sam knew the same thing. He could see that the swelling had gone down quite a bit, but it still looked pretty bad. Sam wished he had something he could splint it with or make a crutch out of, but then again a crutch would probably make things worse in this sand. Even some ice to put on it would be better than nothing, but there was no use wishing for things you couldn’t have. Something he had often had to remind himself of in his life.

They set off again, the setting sun at their backs. Sam was determined to make up more ground today than they did yesterday, but it seemed the terrain was working against them as the ground started sloping upwards after about four hours of walking and the angle was just getting steeper and steeper. Sam was struggling himself, and he was practically carrying Gabriel by that point who had no hope on his own with his knee as bad off as it was. “Sam stop!” Gabriel gasped out after a while. 

When Sam had stopped Gabriel lowered himself so that he was sitting on the ground. “You go. We must be nearly out of the crater by now,” Gabriel said firmly. 

“Not a chance in hell!” Sam growled. “I am not leaving you here.”

“Yes,” Gabriel said with narrowed eyes. “You are.”

Sam grabbed the front of Gabriel’s wife-beater that used to be white before this excursion and hauled him to his feet. “You listen to me Gabriel. You are coming out of here with me if I have to knock you out and carry you out myself. You got it?” he hissed. 

“Sam don’t worry about me. I’m sure my powers will come back before I get too bad off,” Gabriel said knowing that it was a lie. “You need to save yourself. I’ll come find you when my powers are back. I promise.”

“Bullshit,” Sam said not believing him for a moment. If he really thought that then he wouldn’t have bothered pushing himself so hard getting this far. He would have just parked his ass and waited. “I don’t need to save myself. I need to save you. All this is my fault, but I will save someone damnit, even if it is an annoying archangel,” he said practically yelling. 

Gabriel pushed him away harshly, falling back on his ass in the sand as he did so. “Damnit Sam. This isn’t your fault. It’s mine! All of it!” Gabriel choked out as the tears started welling up. He too was trying to save the one thing he could out of this horrible mess.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam thought the archangel was nuts, but he knew that they were never going to get anywhere unless they worked this out, because he sure as hell wasn’t about to leave Gabriel behind so he sat down next to him and said, “What are you talking about?”

Gabriel gave a heavy sigh. He had been hoping that he could survive this too, but it just wasn’t to be. The only way to save the hunter now was to come clean completely so that he would leave him behind. “I was always a screw-up Sammy. The archangel who couldn’t do anything right. I was picked on and bullied by most of the other angels because of it, but Michael and Lucifer always tried to be patient with me. Right up until the day I messed up a spell and accidentally turned Michael’s wings pink. He was furious, but Lucifer came to my rescue and defended me. After that they were always fighting about me. I started all of it. Their entire feud is because I was too much of a screw-up and too weak and emotional to fight my own battles.”

“Gabriel,” Sam said soothingly reaching out to place a hand on the archangel’s shoulder. 

Gabriel shrugged Sam’s hand off though and continued, “After Lucifer was cast out, I realized I was poison so I ran away and hid down here. My screw-ups were just seen as pranks and I gained a reputation as a prankster and was named Loki and became a god. Then I had a chance to end this before it started, but my stupid emotions got in the way again. I knew you hadn’t learned your lesson. I knew, but I couldn’t stand to watch you like that anymore. I couldn’t see you keep falling apart. Then I led you to me and was going to explain the lesson and then let it continue, but seeing your tears I caved. I gave up and let you go. Gave you your brother back. I could have stopped it if I hadn’t been so weak. Sam. I’m sorry.” Gabriel said letting his head fall to the one knee that he could bend that he was hugging to his chest. 

Sam looked at Gabriel in shock. He had always thought of Gabriel as cold and unfeeling, but it seemed that Gabriel felt more than most, he just kept it hidden because he saw it as a weakness. Hearing about the mystery spot from Gabriel’s point of view was enlightening, and despite all that he had suffered during, couldn’t help but feel guilty for not listening to Gabriel then. When he heard the first sniffle from the archangel he immediately wrapped an arm around Gabriel’s shoulder and pulled him against his side. “It’s not your fault Gabriel,” he whispered. When Gabriel just shook his head in disbelief Sam sighed. “I’ll tell you what. You keep blaming yourself if you want for now and I’ll keep blaming myself so long as we both get out of here together we can sort out the blame later. Deal?”

“Sam,” Gabriel said plaintively. “I can’t.”

“Yes. You can. Because I’m not leaving you. We both live or we both die, so let’s go,” Sam said firmly standing and holding out a hand to Gabriel. Gabriel wiped his eyes, sighed, and took it surprised when Sam turned his back to him and crouched down saying, “Climb on.”

Gabriel looked at him like he was nuts. “You want me to what?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Put your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist.”

“I don’t think…” Gabriel started cautiously.

“Just do it,” Sam snapped impatiently. Gabriel sighed and did as he was told and Sam started walking. The angle was so steep that with the extra weight on his back he had to keep a hand on the ground in front of him to keep himself steady, but he was making progress. Much better than they had been when he was trying to drag Gabriel anyway. The sun was nearly up by the time they made it to the edge of the crater which happened to be a wall. Thankfully it was only about eight feet high so Sam was able to boost Gabriel over it and then Gabriel lay on his stomach and helped Sam up which mainly meant giving him something more sturdy than the crumbling ground to anchor himself to as he pulled himself up. 

When Sam looked around though he immediately fell to his knees and began dry heaving, having nothing in his stomach to come back out. It looked like a bomb had gone off. Of course, in a way, one had. It was just an archangel bomb rather than a manmade one. There wasn’t a single building still standing, and only a few had anything standing and those few were barely more than a post sticking out of the ground here and there. There was debris littered everywhere. “Gabriel,” Sam breathed out, looking for some sort of connection with someone. 

“I’m here Sam,” Gabriel said softly. 

“How far…I mean…” Sam couldn’t even put it into words.

“I don’t know,” Gabriel replied. 

“An estimate?” Sam asked hopefully.

“I don’t have any idea Sam. If I get my powers back I can do some scouting, but for all I know we are the only people left on the planet,” he said sadly. He knew that he should be trying to make Sam feel better, but he was tired, hungry, thirsty, and in pain and didn’t have much strength left to hope. 

Sam took a few more deep breaths to calm himself before he pulled himself to his feet again and helped Gabriel up as well. “Might as well keep moving then,” he said pushing all his feelings to the back of his mind. Thankfully the heat wasn’t so bad now that they were out of the crater and not surrounded by so much sand. It was about an hour later before Sam caught something out of the corner of his eye. It was a piece of a sign that he could just make out as a Wal-Mart and he got an idea. 

He led Gabriel over to that pile of debris, found something that could be used as a bench, and sat the archangel down. “I’m going to see if I can find anything salvageable out of that mess,” he said handing the last remaining bottle of water that was half full to the archangel. “Drink. I’m sure I’ll find more.”

Sam didn’t even give Gabriel a chance to respond before rushing off to dig through the rubble. Once Sam was gone Gabriel looked appraisingly at the water bottle that Sam had given him. He wasn’t drinking a drop until he had confirmation that Sam had found more. He hadn’t seen the bottles since e first woke up before they started walking, but did some quick math in his head after scrutinizing what was remaining and clenched his jaw in anger. 

 

Sam entered what was left of the store and started digging around. He found what was most likely the grocery section and after finding a mostly intact shopping cart started throwing in whatever canned goods he could find that were still in one piece, though most of them were dented. He especially looked for the ones with pop tops since opening them with a knife was a pain, but he wasn’t exactly picky. Finally he found the section with water. Most of it was busted and spilled everywhere, but he was able to find a few cases undamaged and slid them onto the bottom of the cart before making his way to the other side of the store. If they were going to be traveling, some backpacks would be nice, as well as a couple changes of clothes. Not too much of course since they had to travel light but he was dying for at least a new pair of boxers. 

He finally made his way back over to Gabriel with his motherlode. They could sort and pack everything together. When he got back over to him though he was met with a look that made him glad that Gabriel didn’t have his powers at that moment. “What’s up?” he asked curiously. 

Gabriel threw the bottle of water at him. “You’ve been shorting yourself,” he said angrily. 

“Gabriel…” Sam said trying to figure out how to explain but Gabriel wasn’t finished yet. 

“What was all this ‘we both live or we both die’ crap if you were trying to kill yourself anyway huh?”

Sam looked down, knowing that the only explanation he had wasn’t going to make the archangel feel any better. “I wanted to make sure you would have enough.”

“And what about you Sam? How do you think I would feel if you died like that? Did you even think about that?”

Sam set his jaw and looked back at Gabriel. “You’d be alive at least. If I can save you then at least I can do something worthwhile with my life. It can mean something. It’s all I have left that I can do.”

Gabriel closed his eyes and took a deep breath for patience. If it would get the hunter to stop being so self-sacrificing, he would have to tell him something he never wanted anyone to know. “Ok I’m going to tell you something Sam, and I swear if you use it against me or tell another soul…if we ever find another soul…I will trap you in a dimension filled with clowns forever.” Once Sam nodded he continued. “There are three things that scare the hell out of me. Being powerless, being trapped, and being alone. I’m already trapped and powerless and the only thing keeping me going is the fact that I’m not alone, so you had damn well better start taking care of yourself too, because when I say we both live or we both die, I mean it a lot more than you did apparently. Understood?”

Sam looked at Gabriel searchingly for a moment and now that he was looking for it, he could see the barely concealed terror in his whiskey eyes so he nodded slowly and Gabriel shortly, “Now drink. And since I’m sure you were lying to me earlier, eat something too.”

Sam did as he was told as Gabriel started packing the large camping backpacks Sam had found. Sam quickly finished his power bar and drank about half of the remaining water. He didn’t want to drink too much too fast and make himself sick. He handed the water back to Gabriel, who then finished it off having noticed the extra water Sam had found. “I was thinking,” Sam started to say as he grabbed the other bag and started packing it. “I’m sure at least some of these houses have basements that may be intact. Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll even find one with an actual bed or some more supplies.”

“Then what are you sitting here for. I’ll take care of this. You go start searching,” Gabriel said waving Sam off. The idea of a real bed was oh so tempting. 

Sam looked at him nervously. “You’ll be ok?” He was sure Gabriel could handle being alone for a while, at least in normal circumstances, but this was spooky even for him. Not to mention, Gabriel had tried to get him to leave him to die earlier, so he was understandably anxious about going too far away from the archangel right now. 

“I’ll be fine Samsquatch,” Gabriel said with a crooked half-smile. 

Sam could see that Gabriel was nervous but determined. He didn’t see any of the hopelessness that had scared him so much the last time Gabriel had tried to get him to leave so he smiled back as much as he could manage and set off to see what he could find. He started nearby, not wanting Gabriel on his leg any more than he had to be, but it wasn’t until about two miles away that he found what he was looking for. Apparently some teenager had turned the basement into his bedroom, and he had found a couple basements along the way pretty well stocked with supplies that they could forage from until Gabriel was healed. It was as good a place as any even if there was only one bed.


	5. Chapter 5

Sam could tell Gabriel was reaching the end of his rope by the time they made it to the house Sam had found. He had left the padlock off the outer access doors of course when he left. He went backwards down the stairs helping Gabriel along with him. Gabriel’s knee was flared up again just as bad as it had been the last time they stopped. Sam had been carrying both backpacks this time. Sam sat Gabriel down in the nearby chair and opened a can of food to hand to him. “Once you eat take some of these,” he said handing the archangel a bottle of ibuprofen. He knew some people reacted badly to them on an empty stomach and highly doubted the archangel had ever had any chance to find out if he would or not. “They will reduce the swelling in your knee and help with the pain.”

Gabriel nodded gratefully and Sam was glad he had run across the pharmacy section in his search. He had also grabbed some rubbing alcohol and bandages. Now that they had the option, he really wanted to get Gabriel’s wounds clean before they got infected. He had thought about grabbing some whiskey too, but of course everything in glass was pretty much shattered. He considered himself lucky he found as much usable water as he did. Once Gabriel was finished eating and had drunk half the bottle of water with the pills, Sam pulled out the alcohol and bandages. “Ok. Off with the shirt.” 

Gabriel did a double take at him, “Do what?”

Sam held his hands up showing Gabriel what he had. “There was quite a bit of blood and if we don’t get the wounds clean they can get infected. So c’mon. Off with it.”

Gabriel sighed heavily. “You humans really are fragile aren’t you?” he said as he took his shirt off, unable to completely hide his blush. 

Sam felt his lips quirking into the first genuine smile he’d had since this whole mess started. Who knew Gabriel could be so bashful? Thankfully the archangel didn’t see it as Sam had already moved behind him to start on his back. “This might sting a little,” Sam warned as he saw the myriad of cuts along Gabriel’s back. Thankfully none of them were deep enough to need stitches, but all the walking they had done hadn’t given them much of a chance to scab over and most of them were still weeping blood. Gabriel’s shirt was a complete goner along with his ripped pants so it was a good thing that Sam had thought to get them some more clothes. 

Gabriel gave a hard and noticeable flinch at the first touch of the alcohol, but managed to keep himself still and silent after that, and Sam knew how bad it stung from experience. Gabriel’s chest and stomach were clear though. Whatever it was had hit him full in the back, which Sam could have guessed by the way Gabriel was face down on top of him when he woke up. They then faced opposite sides of the room to get changed, and oh what Sam wouldn’t give for a shower, but he had already checked for running water and of course there wasn’t any. It had been a long shot anyway. 

Gabriel hadn’t bothered putting a shirt back on, not wanting to ruin another one if the wounds started bleeding again and was wearing a modest pair of shorts that Sam had gotten him assuming that it would be better for his knee if they were going to be stationary for a while. “I’m guessing we’re sharing?” Gabriel asked motioning to the bed. 

“That’s what I was thinking,” Sam said with a shrug. If Gabriel wasn’t comfortable with it though Sam would sleep on the floor. It was Sam’s fault they were in this mess in the first place and Gabriel was injured. It wouldn’t be the first time Sam had slept on an uncomfortable floor after all. 

“Yeah ok,” Gabriel said falling into bed and pulling the blanket over top of him. 

“Hang on a sec,” Sam said grabbing an extra pillow to put under Gabriel’s knee before he climbed into bed himself, making sure to stay on his side. 

“Sam,” Gabriel said softly reaching out to grab the hunter’s hand. When Sam turned his head to look at Gabriel, he was surprised when Gabriel kissed him. It was short and chaste and only lingered for a few seconds before Gabriel pulled back and gave him a sad smile. “Thank you,” he said sincerely as he leaned back and closed his eyes. Sam gave the hand in his a comforting squeeze, but didn’t say anything. Gabriel had been wanting to kiss the hunter forever, but this was the perfect opportunity. It could be brushed off as a thank you and never mentioned again without things getting weird. 

Sam’s mind was reeling however. He hadn’t even noticed that their hands were still clasped together as he just thought about the kiss. He had no idea how he felt about it. He had never been attracted to men before, but he had to admit that Gabriel was definitely attractive and the kiss was nice. Gabriel had just meant it as thanks though and even if he wanted to pursue more with him, Sam didn’t deserve someone like him. Not after everything that he’d done. 

 

When Gabriel woke the first thing he noticed was the warmth. The second thing he noticed was the weight. He glanced down to see Sam’s head resting on his shoulder and his arm thrown across Gabriel’s stomach. Gabriel realized that his arm was around the hunter’s back and resisted the urge to tighten his hold, but he did tilt his head to the side and rest his cheek against the top of Sam’s head and close his eyes just enjoying the moment. Gabriel was a very physical being and he craved contact. He could feel Sam’s breath ghosting across his chest and could tell that he was still fast asleep. Gabriel knew that he should try to extricate himself before the hunter woke and realized how they were sleeping, but not only could he not bring himself to do so, but he worried that doing that would wake the hunter anyway and then he would be both uncomfortable and cranky so he just let himself enjoy it while it lasted. 

Sam started to stir awake and immediately realized how he had been sleeping and lifted his head quickly to find a pair of sad amber eyes watching him. “Sorry Gabriel,” he said sheepishly backing away. 

Gabriel sighed softly. “Don’t be. It’s…” Gabriel paused for a moment looking for the right non-commital word before he settled on, “comforting.”

Sam smiled shyly and admitted, “Yeah. It kinda is.” Sam got up out of bed and went to grab some food and water for them. He was glad they didn’t need to ration as tightly anymore. When Gabriel threw the blanket off and started to get out of bed though Sam stopped him. “Don’t get up any more than you have to. We want your knee to heal as quickly as possible so you need to stay off it. Here,” he said handing Gabriel an open can, a bottle of water, and the ibuprofen before settling in the chair with his own. 

“So what’s the plan?” Gabriel asked knowing that Sam would have thought of something by now and knowing that he was way out of his depth here. He had no idea how to survive without his powers.

“We hang here until you’re able to walk again. We’ll try to switch back to sleeping at night so we can keep the doors open and get some light in here to pass the time during the day and once you can walk again we start making our way west skirting the outside of the crater so we can scavenge along the way.”

“Why west?” Gabriel asked. They had been moving east until now so it seemed rather silly to change directions all of a sudden. 

“South Dakota. If Dean did survive somehow, he’ll be making his way there, and I need to see if Bobby made it,” Sam said firmly expecting Gabriel to tell him there was no hope and that it would be pointless. 

Gabriel was going to do no such thing though. Now that he was reasonably, given the situation, comfortable, he could hold onto hope a little more and wanted to give Sam some more hope as well. “Dean might have made it kiddo. Kali is pretty powerful in her own right and may have managed to save him.”

Sam had been thinking the same thing, but he didn’t realize how much he had needed to hear the words until Gabriel said them. His eyes filled with tears of relief and hope and he reached over to squeeze Gabriel’s hand. “Thanks Gabriel.”

Gabriel turned his hand over to clasp Sam’s and squeezed back giving him a small smile before Sam pulled back to resume eating. He didn’t catch the fact that Gabriel had said nothing about Bobby. There was very little chance that Bobby’s place had survived intact. In fact, he would be surprised if anything on this continent was in any better shape than this place and that was being generous. He wasn’t going to argue about the change in directions. Walking one way was just as good as walking in another and now that they had water and food taken care of there was no particular reason to choose any direction over another.


	6. Chapter 6

By the time they finished eating twilight was setting in and they were losing the little light they had. Sam knew that it would take a long time to fall back to sleep after just having woken up, not to mention that he wasn’t looking forward to trying to find his way in the dark so he climbed back into bed looking at Gabriel as if unsure what to do next. Gabriel just held out an arm and gave Sam a questioning look and Sam smiled and curled up to the archangel’s side. It really was comforting just to have someone to hold on to in this nightmare. “Why me Gabriel?” 

“You’re gonna have to be more specific Sammich,” Gabriel said contentedly rubbing a hand absentmindedly over Sam’s back. 

“Why did you save me? Why not Kali or even Dean?”

“There wasn’t exactly a lot of time to consider what I was doing and you were closest,” Gabriel said honestly, but when he felt Sam flinch and tense up, he realized how it sounded. “I still would have chosen you though if I’d had time to think,” he rushed to clarify. 

“Which brings me back to my first question. Why?” 

“Well disregarding the fact that Kali had just tried to kill me, she has her own power. Plenty to give her a fighting chance without help, and between you and Dean, you are the better choice.” Gabriel could feel Sam’s confusion in the tense set of his shoulders and the way he tilted his head on Gabriel’s shoulder so he continued, “Dean and I are a lot alike. Neither of us are particularly patient or kind. If he and I had been in that situation we would have killed each other before we got anywhere. Even if we didn’t he wouldn’t have taken my injuries as well as you did.”

“He would have tried to save you too,” Sam defended his brother. 

“I’m sure he would have, but there would have been a lot more arguing and tempers flaring and it would have slowed us down, probably fatally, if he would have even accepted my suggestion on which way to go in the first place.” Sam couldn’t really argue with that so he let Gabriel continue. “You’re smart, you think well on your feet, and you have the patience and kindness that Dean and I both lack, and you’re not afraid to follow when the situation warrants it, but can easily take the lead as well. If I had to be trapped like this with someone, I’m glad it’s with you,” he finished softly. 

Sam tightened his grip around Gabriel’s stomach and took a leaf from the archangel’s book and lifted his head to place a soft chaste kiss on Gabriel’s lips, lingering for only a few seconds just like before and then he smiled and said, “Thank you Gabriel,” and put his head back on Gabriel’s shoulder. 

Gabriel forced himself not to give an outward response as he smiled back at the hunter and his hand didn’t miss a beat on Sam’s back, but internally he was shocked. He knew that Sam didn’t mean anything by it. He was clinging to him for comfort in a difficult time, and Gabriel had been the one to start the thank you kiss thing, but Gabriel couldn’t deny the jolt of warmth it shot through him as he closed his eyes and tried to burn that moment into his memory. 

Sam too closed his eyes lost in thought about his brother. This whole situation started because he couldn’t let go of him. Sam made a promise to himself that if the worst happened and he learned that Dean hadn’t survived, he would let go this time. He owed it to Gabriel. He wasn’t going to give up hope though. Not until he was certain that there was none. 

It didn’t take them as long to fall asleep as Sam had expected. They had both pushed themselves so hard the last few days, and it had been such a tense time, that they soon drifted back to sleep. They woke before the sun came back up, but that was to be expected. They had left the outer doors to the basement open so they could get some light once the sun came up and there didn’t seem to be any animals around either so the only thing they had to worry about was the weather, which thankfully had been clear the last few days. 

It was a new moon currently though so there was next to no light to see by before the sun came up so neither of them stirred from the bed until it did. Once they were fed and watered Sam said, “I was thinking I should go do some more scouting around, see what I can find. Will you be okay?”

“Other than being bored out of my skull you mean?” Gabriel said jokingly. 

Sam started rummaging around for a while until he found a stack of magazines and handed them to Gabriel. “Better?”

Gabriel looked at the car and sports magazines with a raised eyebrow and said, “Marginally.”

“I won’t be more than a few hours,” Sam assured Gabriel as he emptied one of the large backpacks and headed out. He made his way back towards the destroyed Wal-Mart first, making a mental note to stop by one of the other basements he had already checked out on the way back that seemed to be stocked for emergencies including a large supply of canned good, condensed milk, more water, and a can opener which would really come in handy. He would save that for last though since it would be a lot of extra weight. He spent a couple hours digging through the rubble of the store and came out with a good supply of boxers and socks for the both of them. Everything else they could wear raw, but clean underwear and socks was always a good thing. He also grabbed some more first aid supplies including two different braces for Gabriel’s knee. One hard one to immobilize it and another cloth one for when it was healed up a bit more. He passed on crutches though. Not only would they be a nightmare to carry back, but even if the archangel could get the hang of them there was way too much debris all over the place to bother trying to use them. They could wait here until he was able to walk better on it. He also grabbed some toothbrushes and toothpaste and even some soap and shampoo just in case. He planned to try to find the nearest body of water tomorrow. He would go this afternoon, but he didn’t want to leave Gabriel alone all day. 

After making his brief stop at the loaded basement he headed back to Gabriel in time to find him trying to stumble his way back down the stairs. He dropped the bag and rushed over to help him. “What are you doing?” he asked alarmed and slightly annoyed that he was out of bed. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes and shrugged. “I had to piss. Sue me.”

“You could have used the bucket instead of trying to kill yourself on the stairs,” Sam said pointedly. 

Gabriel glared at him. “Not a chance in hell. Going outside is undignified enough thanks.”

Sam couldn’t really blame him there, but made a mental note to help Gabriel out before he left next time. Sam showed off his new goodies and got them taken out and organized. They were starting to make a nice little nest. Sam showed Gabriel how to use the knee braces when he needed to get up for anything and Gabriel hoped that Sam hadn’t noticed his reaction when Sam’s hands brushed against his upper thigh while showing him how to tighten it. Luckily for him Sam didn’t notice. 

They whiled away the afternoon playing with a deck of cards Sam had found and keeping up a light conversation. Neither of them wanted to talk about anything heavy. They just needed to forget about the horrors outside for a few hours. Once night started falling, they settled into bed again, in what was becoming their normal position and after a few minutes of conversation Sam was the first to yawn. This time they both moved together as their lips met. While it did last a second or two longer than the other times it was no less chaste. They both told themselves that they just needed some sort of connection with someone. As soon as their lips parted they smiled at each other and said goodnight.


	7. Chapter 7

Sam woke the next morning and could feel by Gabriel’s breathing that he was still sleeping. He could feel Gabriel’s arm around his back with his hand draped over Sam’s waist. Sam had his own arm lying across Gabriel’s stomach, hand on the bed beside him. He sleepily bent his arm bringing his hand up to Gabriel’s chest, not quite realizing what he was doing just yet. He was absentmindedly moving his fingers over the taut muscles and didn’t even notice Gabriel wake up until he felt the archangel’s hand on his forearm, thumb rubbing slow circles. It wasn’t quite light out yet given that it was pitch dark for nearly 12 hours and they couldn’t exactly sleep that long so they lounged in bed for a while, not saying a word just holding each other. 

Sam wondered what was happening here between them. Was it really just holding on to the one person they had for comfort or was there more to it? Did he want there to be more to it? Did Gabriel? In the end he decided that it didn’t really matter either way. They were all each other had and he wasn’t going to risk losing that by pushing for more. He had no right to ask for more anyway and counted himself lucky that he had what he did. A close friend that he could draw comfort from in difficult times, and that he could comfort in turn. 

Gabriel was just enjoying the moment. Sam would never know how much these times meant to him. When they could just be close like this. He knew that eventually the hunter would begin to heal and then wouldn’t need this anymore so he would enjoy it while he could. Once the room started to gain some light as the sun peeked over the horizon Sam got up to get some breakfast for them. “So what are you doing today?” Gabriel asked wondering if Sam would be leaving him again. He did have a little problem that he really needed to take care of after all that touching this morning. 

“I was going to head out and see if I could find a lake or a river or something nearby that we can bathe in actually,” Sam said finishing up his food and washing it down. 

And just like that Gabriel’s little problem became a little bigger at the thought of them bathing, and when Sam headed out a few minutes later Gabriel waited a few minutes to make sure he wouldn’t be coming back for anything before reaching down beneath the blanket and pressing his hand over his erection rubbing lightly for a few minutes before throwing the blanket off and sliding his shorts down. He didn’t want to leave any mess that Sam could find. 

He remembered the feeling of Sam’s hand on his chest, fingers moving over his muscles as he stroked himself. He pictured that hand moving lower over his stomach as his speed increased. He thought about what Sam’s body would look like naked as he bathed Gabriel slowly. Gabriel was thrusting up into his hand now letting out short quiet whimpers as he brought the feel of Sam’s lips on his into the fantasy, only in his mind it was more than just lips. It was tongues and teeth and need and want…Sam’s name pulled from him, nearly inaudible as he came in spurts over his chest and stomach. He lay there panting for a moment before grabbing his old, dirty boxers to clean himself up with. 

It took Sam less than an hour to find a river and it was just his luck that it looked calm enough to do the job. He figured most of the debris had already washed away in the current. He had been keeping careful track of the direction he had been walking so knew what direction it was back to Gabriel and he was very glad to find that it was only about a mile away. Gabriel could easily manage that with his knee brace without doing much more damage. He got back and gave Gabriel the good news and the other man looked just as excited as he was about finally being able to clean up a bit. 

Gabriel was glad that he would have a chance to get clean. He felt disgusting. Hopefully being able to sneak a peek at Sam’s naked body was only part of the reason he was excited. He snapped his knee brace on as Sam grabbed the soap, shampoo and a couple towels he had found in the kid’s room, hoping they were clean but not really caring all that much. He graciously let Sam help him up the stairs, but insisted on doing the rest himself. He had managed nearly seventy miles on his own after all. Surely he could handle one more after a few days of rest. 

As soon as they reached the river, Sam, with his back to Gabriel, wasted no time shucking off his clothes before diving into the water. It was cold as hell, but worth it. Once Sam was in the water Gabriel tore his eyes away and began undressing himself. He was so focused on getting the knee brace off that he didn’t notice Sam’s eyes on him as he stood there at the bank of the river naked. Sam was glad the river was cloudy and Gabriel wouldn’t be able to see his erection. 

Gabriel, a little embarrassed about being naked so close to an equally naked Sam, didn’t look up to meet Sam’s eyes as entered the water a little more slowly and carefully than the hunter had and Sam couldn’t tear his eyes away. He didn’t even realize that he was stroking himself until Gabriel submerged himself under water. They were a good thirty feet away from each other. Far enough that Gabriel wouldn’t be able to tell what he was doing unless he was beyond obvious but still close enough to see the rippling muscles in the archangel’s back as he surfaced, facing away from Sam, head leaned back to keep his hair out of his face. 

Sam bit his lip as he watched and increased his pace, sinking lower in the water so that Gabriel wouldn’t see his shoulder moving if he happened to look up. When he felt himself getting ready to cum, he ducked under the water so that if any noise happened to escape it would be muffled by the water. He was beet red as he surfaced. He couldn’t believe he had just done that. He couldn’t believe the effect the archangel’s naked body had on him either. He realized the answer to one of his questions from earlier. He did want there to be more between them, but it didn’t change the fact that it was a bad idea. 

He swam back to the shore and grabbed the shampoo and soap before jumping back in and handing the soap to Gabriel keeping the shampoo to himself. “Don’t drop it please,” Sam said. “I don’t think we’d ever find it again in here.”

Gabriel gave a short laugh. “Same for you and the shampoo. I’m dying to get my hair clean.”

Once they were both clean they just enjoyed staying in the water for a while. The sun was high in the sky and most of the chill from the water had long faded. As long as Sam kept his eyes away from the devastation beyond the shore, he could almost forget about everything that had happened. 

Gabriel found swimming to be much easier on his bad knee than walking so was eager to put off the walk back to the house as long as possible. They were both very conscious of their nakedness and took care to touch each other very little, but they did chase each other around and have splash fights and such. They were both like prunes when they finally left the water and dried off. Sam had thought to bring a change of clothes for them so they were clean and in clean clothes for the first time in nearly a week and they had never felt better. 

By the time they made it back to where they were staying they were starving. Sam had forgotten how hungry you get while swimming. He figured they could afford to have two cans each this time since there was so much more to be found in the area and he already knew the best places to get it from. He even used some of the water to mix up the condensed milk so they could have a bit of a change and get some calcium in them. It didn’t exactly taste great, but it still felt like a feast and they treated it like one too as they laughed and joked and told stories. 

Sam almost felt bad, like he was forgetting about all the bad and making light of the horrible situation, but the light in Gabriel’s eyes as he laughed made all that fly from his head. He hadn’t seen that spark since they had woken up in the crater, and there was no way he was taking it away from him.


	8. Chapter 8

They were having so much fun that they didn’t even notice the light leaving the room until it was too dark to see. They bumped into each other multiple times before finally finding their way to the bed laughing. “All your scrounging around and you never thought to find a flashlight and batteries?” Gabriel asked incredulously. 

“Well I’ve kinda had other priorities. I’ll look tomorrow and see what I can find. Most of the normal ones are probably destroyed, but they likely have some ruggedized ones that may have survived.” 

Sam found his way to Gabriel’s side and the archangel reached out and put a hand on the side of Sam’s face so that he would know where he was and kissed him the same as they had the last few nights. “Goodnight Samsquatch,” he said brightly, hoping the tone would cancel out some of the added intimacy of the face touching. 

“Night Gabe,” Sam said lying his head down on the archangel’s shoulder as his hand came to rest on Gabriel’s chest. Gabriel brought his hand up to rest on top of Sam’s as they drifted off to sleep. 

After all their exertion the previous day they slept until sunrise and were woken by the rays of light coming through the door. After breakfast Sam emptied a pack and headed back to Wal-Mart to see what he could find by way of lighting implements. He had found two ruggedized flashlights that were working, grabbed a few led camping lanterns that survived the blast since they would be easier to use while they were stationary, and a whole bunch of candles along with a pack of lighters that seemed mostly intact. He had his lighter with him of course, but there was no guarantee how long that would last without more fluid so it was a good idea to have some backups just in case. 

That thought in mind he started trying to find some lighter fluid when there was a boom of thunder and the skies opened up. “Shit!” he cursed and abandoned all thoughts of lighter fluid in the wake of the downpour and started making his way back to their little safe house. 

Gabriel bit his lip anxiously as he watched the rain pour in through the open door. He considered closing it but then it would be too dark in here and what if Sam had trouble getting back in when he got back. He knew it was ridiculous worrying about the hunter. He had surely faced worse things than a thunderstorm, but knowing it was ridiculous didn’t help much as the time stretched on and he hadn’t made it back yet. 

Just when Gabriel was about to say screw it and go look for him Sam came trudging down the stairs and dropped his pack. He was going to get the torches set up and then close the door, but Gabriel’s words stopped him. “Where have you been? Don’t you realize it’s storming out there?”

‘What the hell?’ Sam thought. “I started heading back as soon as it started,” he said before it dawned on him what Gabriel’s problem was. “Were you worried about me?”

“Of course not,” Gabriel said shortly and dismissively. 

Before Sam could reply there was a loud crack of thunder and Gabriel jumped nervously. Sam said softly, “Don’t like storms?”

Gabriel glared at him. He knew that being afraid of storms was something that plagued children. “I like storms. When I can protect myself from them. When I don’t have to worry about getting hit by lightning, or having a tree fall on me, or the house…falling down…around me…Sam!” 

Gabriel’s breathing had been getting shallower and faster as he recounted the horrible things that could happen in a storm. Sam recognized a panic attack when he saw one and grabbed Gabriel’s shoulders to get his attention. “It’s okay Gabriel. Just breathe,” he said soothingly. 

“I…I can’t,” Gabriel gasped out. 

Sam knew Gabriel well enough by now to know that physical contact helped him so he slid behind Gabriel on the bed and pulled the archangel’s back against his chest saying softly in his ear. “It’ll be okay. You’re safe. Just focus on my breathing. Try to match your breaths to mine. In and out. In and out,” he coached. “There you go. Much better. Keep going. In and out.” He had one hand flat on Gabriel’s chest feeling his breathing as well as hearing it and the other arm was wrapped around his stomach for support. “I’ve got you. It’s okay.”

Once Gabriel had himself back under control he let his head fall back to Sam’s shoulder. “What the hell was that?”

“You had a panic attack. It happens to the best of us,” Sam said comfortingly. 

“I don’t like it,” Gabriel said petulantly. 

Sam chuckled. “No one does Gabe. Trust me.” He held him for another moment to make sure he wasn’t going to relapse. “You gonna be okay?”

Gabriel turned slightly, placing his forehead against Sam’s neck before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yeah. I’m good.”

Sam smiled and unconsciously dropped a kiss on the top of the archangel’s head before getting up and saying, “Good. Because I found some goodies before the storm hit.” He grabbed the pack and set up the two torches and turned them on, before going to the overhead doors and closing them stopping the influx of rain. It was slightly darker than it was, but the torches gave off a pretty good light. 

“Nice,” Gabriel said appreciatively. 

“But not very practical for when we’re traveling. That’s what these are for,” Sam said pulling out the flashlights and flicking them on and back off again before placing them on top of the dresser and then dumping the rest of the bag out on the bed separating the myriad of batteries and candles and lighters. “There were a few other things I wanted to find, but the rain had other ideas apparently.”

Gabriel gave a lopsided grin. “You did good Sammich.”

“Thanks,” Sam said with a laugh as he grabbed a towel and began drying his hair before stepping into the attached, but essentially useless bathroom to change his soaked clothes.

Now that the ‘crisis’ was over Gabriel called after him with a laugh, “What’d you do? Swim back?”

“Felt like it,” Sam said laughing along with him. 

On his way out of the bathroom, Sam grabbed the deck of cards and held them up questioningly. Gabriel nodded happily, but when Sam went to deal the first had of poker, Gabriel said, “What do you say we make this a little more interesting?”

“How? We don’t exactly have anything to bet,” Sam asked curiously. 

“How about we make it strip poker,” Gabriel said in what he hoped was an amused tone instead of a hopeful one. 

Sam raised an eyebrow thoughtfully before he shrugged and said, “Sure why not.” It wasn’t like there was anything better to do on a rainy day stuck in a basement and it would make the game more interesting. It had nothing to do with wanting to see Gabriel strip. Not at all. Sam could almost make himself believe that. 

Gabriel got a smug grin and just said, “Deal,” so Sam did. 

Sam lost the first hand and found himself wishing that he had put his socks and shoes back on, but contented himself with the fact that Gabriel wasn’t wearing any more than he was as he slowly stripped out of his shirt. 

Gabriel’s eyes were transfixed on the expanse of skin that was being exposed as Sam pulled his shirt off and followed it all the way up, forcing his breathing to stay normal. This was way different than just seeing Sam take off his clothes to jump in the lake. This was deliberate and directly in front of him, and he had only seen from the back that time anyway. He snapped out of his trance as the shirt was tossed away and he hoped that Sam hadn’t noticed. 

Sam had noticed though he pretended he didn’t, and he was secretly thrilled at it. It was a heady thing being looked at like that and he couldn’t help the warmth that spread in him seeing it. He suddenly didn’t care much who won this game as he noticed Gabriel’s eyes darting up to rake over him often during their next hand. Due to Gabriel’s distraction Sam won that one. 

Sam was no less transfixed as Gabriel’s shirt was removed, and Gabriel’s eyes lit with glee upon noticing that. Sam blushed brightly as Gabriel grinned at him and he knew he’d been caught staring and he got a little flustered allowing Gabriel to win the next hand. Sam gulped and stood up, nervously unbuttoning his pants and sliding them down, but not too nervous that he couldn’t cut his eyes up to watch Gabriel clench a hand in the sheets and lick his lips. 

 

Once he was standing there in just his boxers he sat back down so that Gabriel could deal the next hand which Sam won. Sam gave up on trying to hide his staring as he watched Gabriel slide his pants down as well bringing his eyes back up to meet Gabriel’s and he couldn’t help but wonder if his own eyes were as dark as Gabriel’s and he felt himself starting to harden as Gabriel sat back down eyes still locked on Sam’s. 

Neither of them paid much attention to the next hand as the tension between them built, but Sam happened to win so Gabriel stood again and started sliding his boxers off his hips agonizingly slowly as Sam’s eyes followed the trail of light brown hair as more and more of it was revealed. Gabriel was half-hard and would have been fully hard if he hadn’t been so nervous about what he was about to do. He limped two steps forward so that he was standing directly in front of Sam, who had unconsciously turned so that he was facing Gabriel and Gabriel raised his hand and placed it flat on Sam’s bare chest. 

Sam knew exactly what was about to happen and ruthlessly smothered that voice in the back of his mind that was screaming that this was a horrible idea. He couldn’t bring himself to make the next step though and he just breathed out, “Gabriel,” in a voice filled with want and need as his eyes met the archangel’s once more. 

Gabriel was breathing heavily now and Sam could almost hear his heart racing as he leaned down and pressed his lips to Sam’s, much like he had the last few nights, but this time was different and they both knew it and they were both fully hard now. The energy between them practically crackled in the air and this time Sam did take the next step as he nipped lightly at Gabriel’s bottom lip and when the archangel opened for him and his tongue began exploring the delectable mouth, Sam’s hands moved to Gabriel’s bare hips and Gabriel moaned in pleasure. 

Sam gently pulled Gabriel down to the bed, settling himself over top of the archangel who moved one hand to tangle in Sam’s hair and the other running tantalizingly down his side before sliding under the waistband of his boxers and around to grab his ass. Sam gasped and thrust his hips forward rubbing their aching erections together pulling moans from both of them. Sam quickly divested himself of his boxers and ground his hips down over Gabriel’s and the archangel’s fingers dug so deeply into Sam’s ass cheek that he was sure it was going to bruise. 

Sam moved his lips over to Gabriel’s neck and began licking and sucking the soft skin there while rolling his hips as Gabriel whined and thrust his hips up into Sam’s. “Gabe,” Sam gasped against his neck. “I need…” he couldn’t finish his thought as another moan was pulled unwillingly from his lips. 

“Take me Sammy,” Gabriel managed to say. That was all the encouragement Sam needed. He had noticed some lube in the bedside table when he had been rummaging around in here and immediately grabbed for it with one hand. He lubed up his fingers and swung Gabriel’s good leg over his shoulder and immediately pressed a finger in pressing against Gabriel’s prostate. “Shit Sammy,” Gabriel gasped as he used the leg on Sam’s shoulder for leverage to meet Sam’s thrusts as he pulled his finger in and out hard and fast. “More…please.”

Sam couldn’t think of any more incredible sound at that moment than Gabriel’s begging and he gladly complied adding a second finger to the next thrust. Sam was very quickly coming undone and didn’t know how much longer he could last before plunging into the keening archangel. Apparently Gabriel had the same idea because he gasped out, “F-Fuck Sammy….ready enough…in me.” Sam didn’t have to be told twice as he removed his fingers and slid himself in quickly pausing for a moment to make sure he didn’t blow too soon as a needy whimper was drawn from Gabriel. 

Sam didn’t stop for long though as Gabriel thrust his hips up coaxing Sam into movement so Sam pulled himself almost all the way out and slammed back in hitting the sweet spot as Gabriel cried out in ecstasy. Sam reached a hand between them and began stroking Gabriel’s weeping cock in time with his thrusts and bent down to press another desperate kiss to the archangel’s lips. It wasn’t long before they were both a mass of whimpers and moans and Gabriel mumbled against Sam’s lips, “Shit Sammy…love you…so much.” 

Sam couldn’t manage to form any response to that as those words sent him over the edge as he spilled himself in Gabriel crying his name while his hand continued working Gabriel’s dick. It only took two more tugs before Gabriel was spilling over as well.


	9. Chapter 9

Sam collapsed half on top of Gabriel resting his head on the archangel’s chest as Gabriel had his arms tightly around the hunter, not quite willing to let go yet. Gabriel realized what he had said and closed his eyes tightly wishing he hadn’t said that and hoping that Sam didn’t hear it, or was too far gone to process what he said, or maybe there was a loud thunderclap at that moment that drowned out the words. 

Once they had caught their breath Sam said, “Gabriel?” and the archangel could tell from the tone of his voice that Sam had heard him. He tensed and braced himself for the rejection he knew was coming. “Did you mean it?” He didn’t have to clarify any further. They were both painfully aware of what he meant. 

“Just forget about it Sam. Please,” Gabriel said helplessly. 

Sam propped himself up on his elbow so he could look at Gabriel and could see the pained look on his face. “If you tell me you didn’t mean it I’ll never bring it up again,” Sam said sincerely. He knew full well that stupid things that you don’t mean can slip from your lips during sex, but he couldn’t help but hope that Gabriel had meant it, and he would never be able to get it out of his mind until he got an answer. 

Gabriel looked away from Sam, eyes screwed shut again, “I didn’t…” 

That was as far as he got as Sam put his hand on Gabriel’s face and turned him so that he was looking back at him. “Look at me and say it.”

Gabriel was lost in those hazel eyes as soon as they met. “I…I…I can’t,” he finally said with a sigh as he turned his eyes down, unwilling to see the revulsion or pity or anger or whatever else he might see in Sam’s eyes. 

It wasn’t as clear as he would have liked, but Sam got the gist enough. His heart felt like it was going to explode out of his chest it was beating so fast, but he managed to whisper, “I love you Gabriel.”

Gabriel had a brief second of hope before reality came crashing down. They were alone here. They were all each other had, and may even be the last people on earth. Sam was trying to make things easier on them. “Sam…don’t,” Gabriel said sadly. 

Sam knew what Gabriel meant, knew what the archangel was thinking, but chose to play dumb. “Don’t what? Don’t love you?”

“Don’t pretend. I’m good with whatever you want to give here Sam. You want to be friends, great. You want to fuck from time to time, sure thing. Hell, you want to fuck all the time, I’m game, but don’t pretend to love me. Please.”

Sam leaned down and kissed Gabriel deeply, pouring as much emotion as he could manage into the kiss. When it ended Sam pressed his forehead to the archangel’s and said softly. “I do love you Gabriel. No pretending. No games. I love you.”

Father help him but he couldn’t help but believe the hunter as he crashed his lips into Sam’s and held him so tight that he was glad he didn’t have his archangel strength at the moment. Sam melted into the kiss and pulled Gabriel nearly as tight. He was still trying to be careful of Gabriel’s injuries after all, even though the cuts on his back were nearly healed. 

“I love you Sammy,” Gabriel said nuzzling his face into the hunter’s neck after they broke apart. Sam beamed as he settled back next to the archangel tracing hand lazily over the archangel’s toned chest and stomach as he pressed soft kisses to the shoulder beneath him. Gabriel’s hand was dancing over Sam’s exposed back while the other was behind his head and they lay here contentedly listening to the storm rage on. 

It was about an hour later before Gabriel felt moisture against his shoulder and realized that Sam was crying. He moved his hand to stroke the hunter’s hair and asked, “What’s wrong Samshine?”

“This is. It’s…It’s not right,” Sam said brokenly. 

Gabriel did his best to ignore the icy feeling in his gut at Sam’s words in favor of getting clarification. “Why?”

“Open your eyes Gabriel. The world ended. Everyone is dead. And here we are falling in love and stealing moments of happiness,” Sam said derisively. 

Gabriel sighed heavily. He had to get Sam over this. He was not going to accept losing the hunter. Not now. Not that he finally had him. He thought for a moment about the best way to approach it. “I get it Sam. Really I do, but you’re looking at it all wrong.”

“What do you mean?” 

“We have a second chance. Sure there are plenty of people who deserved it more, but we can’t do anything about that. But throwing away this chance would be a bigger insult to their memory than embracing it could ever be. We honor them by going on, rebuilding, repopulating the world, and living our lives the best we can for them.”

Sam snorted. “Repopulating? I don’t know if you’ve noticed Gabe but we’re both guys. Kinda hard to repopulate anything.”

“If I get my powers back it’ll be possible, but we can talk about that later,” Gabriel said getting a mischievous smirk. “It’s a little soon to be talking about kids don’t you think Samsquatch?”

Sam couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped at that. He wasn’t quite ready to accept things as easily as Gabriel seemed to, but it didn’t really matter, because he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to let go of what they had if he wanted to, so he just changed the subject. “Do you think you will get your powers back? Shouldn’t they have come back by now?”

“Not necessarily. The way I figure it one of two things happened. Either I was completely drained of my powers in which case it could take as long as a couple months for them to come back, or they were blasted away altogether and I’ll never get them back. No way to tell which just yet,” Gabriel said with a shrug trying to convey that he was okay with it either way. He wasn’t. Not by a long shot, nor was he as blasé as he seemed about the end of the world, but he was trying to be strong for Sam. It seemed to switch around a lot. Sometimes he was being strong for Sam, sometimes Sam was being strong for him, and sometimes they were both being strong for each other. They were making it through though and that’s all that mattered. 

Sam shivered a little and Gabriel noticed that it was getting a little chilly so he sat up and grabbed the blanket pulling it over them. “Gabe?” Sam said tentatively. 

“Hmm?” Gabriel responded, having resumed his fingers’ dance over Sam’s back. 

“How long?” Sam asked. Gabriel made a confused sort of sound so Sam clarified. “How long have you loved me?” Sam remembered what Gabriel had said about the mystery spot and how he couldn’t stand to see Sam like that and he wondered if he had felt this way, even back then. 

Gabriel gave a fond smile and pressed his cheek against the top of Sam’s head. “Since the first time I met you,” he whispered. “Why do you think I tried so hard?”

Sam smiled too and pulled Gabriel a little tighter and then he remembered. “Then what was that tv land thing about, trying to make us say yes?”

“It was never about you saying yes kiddo. I knew you weren’t going to, but I knew that the harder you were pushed into it the more you would resist. Plus, I had you trapped in an alternate dimension where I hoped to keep you hidden to buy myself some time to work out a plan.”

“But Cas found us,” Sam pointed out. 

Gabriel gave a little shrug. “Yeah. Well. Screw-up remember,” he said self-deprecatingly, before letting out a rather girly squeal when Sam pinched him. 

“Stop that,” Sam said firmly. 

“Just stating facts kiddo,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

“Everyone makes mistakes Gabriel. Hell, look at me. Personally I’d rather be like you and make lots of small mistakes, than the few big ones that I’ve made,” Sam said. When Gabriel didn’t respond Sam brought the conversation back to another point. “So you mentioned working out a plan. The dvd you gave Dean?”

“Yeah. Figures I’d get it all worked out too late to do anything about it,” he said, once again self-deprecatingly, but was able to contain his squeal this time when he got pinched. “Stop that,” he told Sam. 

“You stop that,” Sam countered back before they both laughed at how much they sounded like children. “So out of curiosity, what was the plan?”

“Use the horsemen’s rings to open the cage and shove Lucifer back in,” Gabriel said. 

“You weren’t planning to leave that hotel were you?” Sam asked as it dawned on him.

“I couldn’t have killed Lucifer, Sam. Even if I could look past the brother that protected me and stood up for me, he was too strong. He would have destroyed me,” Gabriel explained. 

Sam knew that berating the archangel for trying to throw his life away would be pointless so he just said, “Don’t ever throw your life away like that again.”

Gabriel lifted Sam’s head and kissed him softly before saying, “I have something to live for now.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a fun sexy aside. The action will pick up again in the next chapter.

Neither of them were sure exactly when the storm stopped since it apparently happened while they were sleeping, but when they woke up the next morning the sun was out. Sam was headed out to do some more scavenging. It dawned on him that they could probably use a tent or something if they were caught out in bad weather like that as well as some rain poncho’s. They didn’t want to risk getting sick while trying to walk five hundred plus miles, especially since there was no chance of getting to a doctor if they got pneumonia or anything, and he still wanted to find some lighter fluid and he had an idea for a surprise for the archangel, if it was manageable. 

Before he left Gabriel reached out and grabbed his hand. “Be careful Sam,” he said seriously. 

Sam chuckled and leaned down for a kiss. “You’re being a worrywart,” he said fondly. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I’ve seen you scrambling over things like a monkey and it’ll probably be wet and slippery now and I can’t heal you if you get hurt.”

Sam knew that last point was the real issue. Gabriel felt vulnerable without his powers, but since he was stuck here in this basement due to his bad leg, he was transferring that worry to Sam. “I’ll be careful Gabe. Don’t worry,” he said running a hand soothingly through the archangel’s hair. 

Sam returned, safe and sound as promised, just over two hours later and sat down on the bed next to Gabriel with a grin and held out the smaller backpack he had pilfered from the room. Gabriel looked at him curiously but took the bag and opened it, peeking inside. He looked back up at Sam and his face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. He threw himself into Sam’s lap pressing a hard kiss to his lips before happily pressing kisses over Sam’s whole face punctuating them with words like, “Love you Sammy” and “You’re the best” and “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” 

Sam laughed deeply as the archangel imitated an excited puppy before he dove back after the bag and grabbed the first candy bar his hand touched and ripped it open taking a bit with an obscene moan. It had taken some doing to find intact candy bars. Most of them had been shredded by debris and he made sure not to get any that had any kind of holes in the wrapper. He got lucky when he found that the bottom few in each pile were fine, if a little beaten up and melted. Obviously Gabriel didn’t care though as he ate them like a starving man. 

Sam smiled brightly at him while he unloaded the rest of the supplies he had gotten. He knew that most of what he was foraging would be left here when they moved on, but if it made their lives easier for the time being it was worth the trouble. Plus, it gave him something to do. He knew that Gabriel was going nuts sitting around here all the time. He wasn’t hiding it as well as he thought he was, but Sam driving himself crazy too wouldn’t do either of them any good and would just make them both irritable. He resolved to make another trip to the river tomorrow to get Gabriel out for a while. 

For today though he had another idea. He was able to do a lot of thinking while he was gone and now that they were together it opened up a lot more room for activities to pass the time. He was glad this room had belonged to a teenager as he was able to find notebooks and pens. Gabriel watched him curiously as he was tearing paper into little pieces and writing something on them before folding them up, but waited patiently as he munched on his candy. He knew he would make himself sick if he had too much so he limited himself to only a few candy bars. Once he didn’t have that to distract him anymore he couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Whatcha doin’ Samsquatch?” 

Sam looked mischievously at him and said, “You’ll see.” Once he had about twenty pieces of paper folded up he put them in a pile on the bed and mixed them all together before grabbing the cards. “Ok here’s how it works. Whoever loses each hand picks a piece of paper from the stack and you have to do what’s written on the paper.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow, wondering what sorts of things there were in the stack as Sam smirked. He had put a wide variety of things in there, some meant to be fun, some meant to be sweet, and some meant to be sexy. Gabriel dealt and lost the first hand. He grabbed a card and laughed as he read it. At Sam’s prompting he read it aloud. “Take your partner’s shirt off with your teeth.”

It took a while and a lot of laughter and wiggling around, but Gabriel finally managed it. Sam lost the next hand and pulled a card and smirked. “Keep your hand busy in your partner’s pants for one minute only, without getting off.”

Gabriel groaned good-naturedly. That would be torturous fun. Sam reached over and undid Gabriel’s pants as he slid his hand in. He watched the battery powered clock on the wall as he fondled Gabriel’s balls and slid his hand tantalizingly over the rapidly hardening cock as Gabriel’s breath quickened. When Sam pulled away as the minute was up Gabriel whimpered. 

Sam lost the next hand too and pulled another card. “Give your partner a back massage.” Gabriel flopped onto his stomach as Sam settled on top of him and began kneading the archangel’s muscles that were so knotted from stress that he had desperately needed this massage. 

“Mmmm Sammy. So nice,” Gabriel murmured contentedly as he could feel the tension draining from him. Sam was enjoying it nearly as much as Gabriel was. He was memorizing every muscle and curve in the archangel’s back and reveling in the feel of the smooth skin beneath his hands. Once Gabriel was good and relaxed and had all his muscle aches worked out Sam leaned down and pressed a kiss between his shoulder blades before climbing off. 

Gabriel sat up slowly still feeling the lazy haze that had come over him during the massage. “I’m totally going to have to get you to do that more often,” he said happily. 

“Anytime you want Gabe,” Sam said indulgently as he dealt the next hand. 

Sam won this one and Gabriel pulled a card. “Play with your partner’s nipples with your hand or mouth for one minute,” he said grinning. Sam was relegated to watching the clock again as Gabriel’s eyes were blocked as his tongue flicked over one of Sam’s nipples while the other was being pinched with his hand. Sam moaned as Gabriel took his nipple in his mouth and alternated between sucking and biting, and flicking until Sam called time. Gabriel sat back with a grin enjoying how easily he was able to take the hunter apart with minimal effort. 

Sam lost the next hand. “Let your partner tickle you for one minute,” he said laughing. Gabriel happily pounced on the hunter and began tickling over his sides as Sam squirmed and giggled helplessly and by the time the minute was over Sam was totally out of breath and they were both laughing. 

Gabriel lost the next hand and laughed loudly when he read it. “Bite your partner’s ass. Ok C’mere Sammy.” Sam, laughing as well bent over and Gabriel tugged his pants down and pressed a hard bite to Sam’s ass cheek. “If we were cleaner or I had my powers I would do so much more with that,” Gabriel said with a salacious wink at the hunter. 

Sam lost the next hand and it was his turn to take Gabriel’s shirt off with his teeth. He had a slightly easier time of it since Gabriel’s shirt hung more loosely, but it was still a hilarious mess. Gabriel hit a streak of bad luck after that and lost the next three hands in a row. The first card he pulled he smirked at. “Get your partner hard without touching him or yourself,” he read. This was too easy. He leaned forward and whispered huskily in Sam’s ear, making sure not to touch it with anything but his breath, “Just wait until my knee is better and I will show you exactly what I can do. I will have you screaming with pleasure as my hard dick rams your tight little ass. You’ll want so badly to cum, but I won’t let you. I’ll have you choked off with one hand while the other teases over every inch of your body driving you crazy as I sink my teeth into your neck and shoulder…”

Sam cut him off with a shaky, “O-okay. You succeeded.”

Gabriel sat back with a smug smirk, ignoring the fact that he had gotten himself hard too. The next card he pulled was “Lick your partner’s ears.” He wasn’t sure whether Sam meant this to be a funny one or a sexual one, but he was definitely going to make it sexual as he ran his tongue over all the ridges in Sam’s ears and behind while breathing heavily and making it as suggestive as possible. When Gabriel’s next card said “Keep your hand busy in your partner’s pants for one minute only, without getting off,” Sam groaned. He was already painfully hard and Gabriel wasted no time undoing the hunter’s pants and plunging his hand in, careful not to push Sam over the edge, but enjoying getting him even more worked up as he gripped and stroked and fondled. It took far more concentration than it should have to watch the clock and Sam gave a choked cry when Gabriel withdrew his hand as the minute was up. 

Gabriel got his game back the next hand though and won. Sam pulled a card that said, “Make out with your partner for one minute,” and he surged forward and captured Gabriel’s lips with his own desperately thrusting his tongue in the warm mouth and exploring as far as he could reach. When the minute was up he finished with a sharp bite to Gabriel’s lower lip pulling a needy whine from the archangel as he tried to follow Sam’s lips with his own. They were both driven beyond distraction, but that’s what made this so much fun as they made it through the next hand. Sam was praying that he would win and that Gabriel would pull the blowjob card, but hey. One out of two wasn’t bad. Gabriel won and Sam pulled the card, reading it aloud for the archangel’s benefit, “Give your partner a blowjob without getting off yourself.” Damn if that last part wasn’t going to be difficult. He already felt like he could blow any second. 

Gabriel lay down happily as Sam leaned over, mouth above the archangel’s straining cock. “I’ve…um…never done this before,” Sam said nervously. 

Gabriel could hear the nerves in Sam’s voice so he said softly, “Sam. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He definitely wasn’t going to push the hunter into something he didn’t want to do especially for the sake of some game. 

Sam looked up and gave Gabriel a lopsided smile. “I wrote the card remember. I want to. Just a little case of the nerves is all.”

Gabriel put his head back down in relief. “Then have at me Sammy. Take your time.”

Sam nuzzled his nose against Gabriel’s still unbuttoned pants letting his hot breath ghost over Gabriel’s cock which twitched at the sensation. He reached up and slid the archangel’s pants and boxers down before running his tongue tentatively up the large vein underneath drawing a whimpering moan from Gabriel that went straight to Sam’s still aching cock. He was glad they were using some of their water to keep certain areas clean, but then he would never have written that card if they weren’t. Sam licked the same area a little more forcefully before wrapping his lips around the tip and lowering his head while sucking hard. 

“Nrguh! S-Sammy! Fuck!” Gabriel gasped out trying to resist the urge to thrust up into the hunter’s hot mouth. Sam pulled back up slowly raking his teeth over the underside of Gabriel’s dick as his tongue pressed tightly just ahead of them and Gabriel moaned loudly. “Shit Sammy…so good…fucking amazing…” Gabriel chanted as Sam picked up the pace and Gabriel couldn’t help himself anymore as he started thrusting his hips up. Sam faltered in his rhythm for a moment before he found a new one that worked for both of them. 

Gabriel’s hand came down to tangle in the hunter’s hair as he felt himself getting close. “F-uck S-Sammy…gonna…gonna cum…” Sam increased the suction and took Gabriel all the way down. “Gah…Sam!” he cried out as he spilled himself in the hunter’s throat, feeling Sam swallowing around him milking him for every last drop. Sam had to reach down and choke off his own orgasm towards the end there. He knew he could end the game whenever he wanted, but as maddening as it was it was also insanely fun and he wanted to keep it going. If Gabriel didn’t get the other blowjob card soon though he was going to say fuck it all and bury himself in Gabriel’s tight ass again. 

“Damn Sammy. If that was your first time you’ve got one hell of a learning curve,” Gabriel said breathlessly. Sam grinned up at him and reached out a hand to pull the archangel back to a sitting position as he dealt the next hand and shifted hopefully when he won and Gabriel reached for a card. Gabriel grinned as he read it and Sam sighed with relief as he lay back on the bed. 

Unable to get his knee under him, Gabriel lay on his stomach, propped up on his elbows, determined to repay the hunter for the amazing orgasm he had just had, but first he had to bring Sam back from the edge or he would blow way too soon so he started small just mouthing at him through his pants before slowly lowering them and pressing soft open mouth kisses up and down his length. He darted out his tongue and lapped lightly over the slit getting a taste of the hunter’s pre-cum. Sam was still painfully hard and moaning, but Gabriel could tell he wasn’t on the edge anymore so he swirled his tongue lightly around the tip, pulling his head back with a smirk as Sam thrust up impatiently. 

Gabriel had spent most of the last few millennia with something in his mouth and he was about to show Sam all the skills he had honed. Gabriel’s tongue danced with speed and precision over all the most sensitive points on Sam’s cock, but he had still yet to take the hunter in his mouth. “Gabe…please,” Sam whined breathlessly. Gabriel wrapped his lips around the head, sucking as he ran his tongue roughly over the slit and Sam let out a keening moan. This time when Sam thrust his hips up Gabriel let him and swallowed around him as he felt Sam’s cock hit the back of his throat before following him back down running tongue and teeth across the oversensitive skin as he pulled back up and quickly went back down. Sam was completely incoherent in his keening moans and cries as Gabriel worked his cock to the extent of his impressive skills, not letting Sam get too close to the edge until he was ready for him to. 

Gabriel was painfully hard again as he took the hunter apart. Sam’s hand in his hair started pulling desperately and almost painfully driving the archangel even more crazy. Gabriel grabbed the lube that they had used yesterday and slid a lubed finger into Sam’s ass avoiding the prostate for the moment. He would let the hunter cum soon, but then he was fucking that ass, knee or no knee. 

Once he had three fingers pumping in and out of Sam’s tight hole, he crooked them to slam against his prostate as Sam came in his mouth, screaming his name. “Flip…over,” Gabriel gasped out after swallowing everything the hunter had spilled in his mouth. Sam complied with some effort to get his limbs to move. Gabriel slid himself upwards, putting all his weight on his good knee as he slammed hard and fast into Sam’s ass angling to hit his prostate. He set a fast anxious pace from the start and it wasn’t long at all before he was spilling over. 

Gabriel collapsed bonelessly on the hunter’s back pressing soft kisses over his shoulder and neck, and feeling the twinging pain in his knee telling him that he overdid it, but the hell if he cared.


	11. Chapter 11

It was another week before Gabriel said, “I think we should get moving tomorrow.”

“You sure you’re ready?” Sam asked concerned. Gabriel was still limping a bit.

“I’m as ready as I’m going to be for a while.”

“I’ll tell you what. You come with me today while I look around and if you’re still doing fine when we get back we’ll head out at first light,” Sam decided. 

Gabriel jumped at the chance. Apart from a trip to the river every few days he had been cooped up in this basement for a week and a half. 

Now that he had the chance Sam showed Gabriel what to look for when deciding if something was salvageable, the best way to lift heavy debris without hurting himself, and gave him a crash course in survival. Since Sam wasn’t rushing back to Gabriel they took their time sifting through everything and exploring some more basements looking for anything else they could use. Despite knowing that they could use the space for more important things neither of them could resist grabbing travel size soap, shampoo and toothpaste. They could always find more in other towns, but if they happened to run across a river or a lake on their way they would be prepared. They also grabbed a few more changes of clothes. It was easier than trying to wash what they had. 

It was mid-afternoon by the time they made it back to their basement and Sam showed Gabriel the best way to pack up for maximum space. “We should be able to find a town to resupply every couple days, but we’ll carry enough for five days just in case so ten cans of food and ten bottles of water each.” They could probably get away with eating one can a day, but they needed to keep their strength up to cover more ground. The rain ponchos went in their pockets, the flashlights strapped to the sides of the backpacks with the spare batteries along with the travel toiletries in the side pockets. 

Sam gave Gabriel the rolled up tent and in the morning Sam would roll up the blanket they had been using and put it in the tent slot on his bag. He didn’t want to risk getting caught somewhere in the open on a cold night. He also packed the essential first aid supplies; a smaller bottle of ibuprofen (no matter how well Gabriel was doing his knee still wasn’t completely well yet) some bandages and rubbing alcohol, and a needle and dental floss in case of emergency. When Sam wasn’t looking Gabriel snuck the lube into his bag as well. 

After dinner that night Gabriel ate his last few candy bars, knowing that they couldn’t waste room on something so minor as candy, but hoping they could scrounge some up every once in a while. By the time the sun went down they were as ready as they could be and they curled up together in bed, both aware that this may be the last comfortable night sleep they get for quite a while. 

The next morning, they woke an hour before the sun and spent some time just lying in bed together enjoying the moment. They knew that times like this would be scarce for a while. Now that the time had come, Sam was more than anxious to get to South Dakota and couldn’t help but hope that he would find Dean and Bobby there waiting for him. They didn’t linger too long though as Sam got up and turned on the torches. Gabriel had finally gotten the hang of the can opener so he got breakfast ready while Sam got the blanket rolled up and stuffed in his bag. Over breakfast Gabriel was the first to speak. “You’re quiet this morning,” he observed.

“Yeah just thinking,” Sam said distractedly. 

“About your brother?” 

“Yeah. And Bobby. They were all I had left you know, and now all I have is this slim hope that they may be out there waiting for me.”

Gabriel reached out and put a hand on Sam’s arm. “Don’t give up hope Sammy. There’s still a chance. Maybe we’ll show up at Bobby’s and they will be there waiting to give you a hard time for taking so long,” Gabriel said with a smile despite knowing that it wouldn’t happen. Sure Dean might be there waiting for him, but he was almost certain that Sioux Falls was in just as bad a shape as this place and Bobby was gone. He couldn’t let Sam give up hope though. If Sam faltered, then they both would because Gabriel was only going for Sam. 

He knew this trip wouldn’t be easy for either of them. It would be much easier to just stay here and wait for his powers to come back and then he could fly them over to Sioux Falls and search the world for Dean or any other survivors, but Sam needed to be doing something and there was no guarantee his powers would ever come back so off they went. As soon as the sun started to come up, Gabriel put his cloth knee brace on and Sam helped Gabriel into his pack before putting on his own and they started walking west, rising sun at their backs. 

It was less than an hour before they made it back to the edge of the crater. He remembered that it had taken more than an hour to get from there to the town, but they were moving faster now that Gabriel was healed up more. He couldn’t believe how much had changed in the two weeks since they woke up out there. He reached over and threaded his fingers with Gabriel’s as they looked at each other with sad smiles before turning northwest and stayed within sight of the crater while scanning the opposite direction for anything useful. 

They walked for almost 14 hours that day and ate dinner by moonlight. As soon as they sat down Gabriel rolled up his pant leg and took the knee brace off and flexed his leg a few times to work out the kinks. Sam tossed him the ibuprofen which Gabriel took gratefully. It was a clear night so they didn’t bother trying to find a basement to sleep in, not that they had the energy to anyway, and cleared the debris from a large enough spot for them to lie down and curl up together under the blanket in full view of the stars, Gabriel’s leg propped up on his back and using Sam’s bag as a pillow while Sam used him as a pillow. It definitely wasn’t comfortable at all and Gabriel was glad to get walking again the next morning and get the kinks worked out of his back. 

They continued on like that, walking fourteen or more hours a day before collapsing from exhaustion. Every two days they began scanning along their path for a town to resupply in. The ended up having to go farther north than they expected to get around the big hole in the ground which would add some time to their journey, but nothing could be done about that. They had made use of their rain poncho’s and the tent a few times, but when, about a week and a half into their trip, a thunderstorm came up, Gabriel insisted on finding shelter. 

Sam was impatient to get to their destination, but couldn’t deny that Gabriel was right. Given the lack of standing buildings and trees, they were basically the tallest things outside and couldn’t risk getting struck by lightning, not to mention if the wind picked up anymore they would be in danger of getting hit with flying debris so they made their way into the town and found a cellar to curl up in until the storm passed. It was small and smelled bad but it was shelter. They even got lucky when they found that it was stocked. 

They helped each other out of their wet clothes and, since they weren’t as exhausted as normal, they made love for the first time since leaving their little hide-a-way. Sam rolled his eyes when he found that Gabriel had snuck the lube along with them, but he definitely wasn’t complaining. They passed the day getting reacquainted with each other’s bodies before falling asleep happy and sated. By the time they woke the next morning the sky was clear again so they resumed their trip.


	12. Chapter 12

It was two more days before they were headed southwest instead of northwest and that night when they stopped Gabriel took some time to scan the stars and get a fix on where they were and figure out where they needed to go. After explaining to Sam that he wasn’t a GPS and couldn’t give them an exact location he finally figured out what direction they needed to head in and pointed mostly west but tilted about ten degrees to the south. “We’re somewhere around southern Minnesota right now,” he explained. 

Sam was happy to see that the direction Gabriel was pointing was well away from the area where the impact crater curved around. It gave him a little more hope that things might be intact in Sioux Falls. Gabriel could see that and dreaded the moment they actually arrived there. He tried not to imagine the look on Sam’s face when they found the devastation, because just thinking about it threatened to break his heart. 

Sam set up some debris pointing an arrow in that direction so that they wouldn’t get disoriented while they slept. They reoriented themselves each night to make sure they were headed in roughly the right direction and after about a week Sam started looking for road signs to give them a more specific idea of where they were. Sam’s mood was slowly falling though as he was realizing that getting farther away from the crater wasn’t decreasing the devastation. Gabriel did his best to keep him happy, but it just wasn’t enough as Sam was starting to lose hope, so Gabriel did the only thing he could think to do to give Sam hope again and hoped he wasn’t doing the wrong thing by giving him false hope. He pointed out that Bobby’s house was warded to the gills and if anything survived in that area it would be Bobby’s. 

It did perk Sam up though, so Gabriel called it a win, even though it would only make things worse when they got there. At least they would get there. They were following what Sam was pretty sure used to be a highway when he found a piece of a road sign. All he could see was ‘Falls’ so he and Gabriel split up looking for more pieces. They weren’t able to find all of it but they were able to find enough to piece together to see that Sioux Falls was about a hundred and fifty miles away on the road they were walking. Sam grinned and picked Gabriel up and swung him around kissing him soundly. “We’re almost there!” he said triumphantly. 

Gabriel just laughed and looked at him fondly. A few more days and they would be there. Sam walked with a new spring in his step and his excitement was contagious. They were exhausted, their muscles ached, their feet were covered in blisters, they were dirty and disheveled, but they were happy. At least as happy as they could be given the circumstances. Sam whiled away the rest of the time talking about Bobby. They had long exhausted the subject of Dean. When Sam told Gabriel about the panic room Bobby had built when he had a free weekend Gabriel started to wonder if maybe hope wasn’t unfounded after all. 

The blast, in addition to leveling buildings had pretty much disintegrated any living matter, but if by chance, Bobby happened to be in the panic room, then there was a chance, however slim that he survived, even if nothing else did. Of course the panic room would have had to have been sealed completely at the time, which was a long shot, but it was better than nothing. He didn’t say any of this to Sam though because if he did then Sam would know that Gabriel had just been giving him false hope up until this point. When they reached the ruins of Bobby’s house, Gabriel did suggest they check the panic room or look around for signs that Bobby had survived. When they pulled his flattened wheelchair out of the wreckage though Sam lost all hope for Bobby. He fell to his knees in the middle of the wreckage and Gabriel knelt behind him and pulled Sam’s back to his chest wrapping his arms around the hunter. “I’m sorry kiddo. But there is still hope for Dean,” Gabriel tried to console him. 

“Stop Gabriel. Just stop,” Sam said brokenly. “Stop trying to lie to me. It’s been a month and a half. If Dean could get here he would be here already.”

Gabriel wasn’t going to give up though. He couldn’t stand seeing the hunter so broken. “We don’t know that. What if he and Kali got flung further away. We ended up relatively close, and sure we took a break for two weeks to heal, but maybe they had to too. We don’t know anything yet. I swear the second I get my powers back I’ll go searching if they haven’t shown up yet, but don’t give up hope until there isn’t any left Sammy,” he pleaded with the hunter as he held one arm tightly around his chest and the other stroked his hair as he cried. 

Sam turned sideways and buried his face in Gabriel’s neck while wrapping his arms around the archangel’s middle. “Please Gabe. Don’t ever leave me. You’re all I have now. I can’t…” he sobbed.

“Shh. I’ll never leave you Samshine. I’m yours forever kiddo. No matter what else happens you’ll always have me. I swear. I love you so much my precious Sammy,” Gabriel murmured soothingly to the distraught hunter. He kept that up as a constant mantra as Sam cried. Once he was more or less under control Gabriel led them back down to the panic room. It had a small cot that was barely big enough for one, but it was the closest thing they’d seen to a bed in nearly a month. He sat Sam down on the cot and then went back up for their bags. He managed to drag them both down at once and when he returned, he could see that, while there were still tears running down Sam’s face he at least wasn’t sobbing anymore. 

Gabriel kneeled in front of where Sam was sitting, head hung low and placed a hand on the hunter’s knee while the other hand ran up through his hair. He pressed a soft kiss to Sam’s forehead and said softly, “I wish I could make this better for you, Sam.” Sam looked up with watery eyes and pressed his lips desperately to Gabriel’s. Gabriel just went with it and let the hunter take what he needed. He was surprised when Sam hauled him up onto the cot and settled over him. “Sam?” Gabriel asked curiously wondering where this was going. 

Sam’s lips were moving across Gabriel’s neck and despite the situation Gabriel felt himself getting hard. “Please Gabe. I just need…need you…I need…” 

Sam couldn’t really articulate what he needed but Gabriel understood. He needed a connection. Something to hold on to. An anchor. And Gabriel would gladly be that for him. “I’m yours Sammy. Whatever you need,” Gabriel whispered in the hunter’s ear. 

Sam ground his hips down over Gabriel’s as he sucked on the archangel’s neck. Gabriel had his arms firmly around Sam’s back. This wasn’t about passion. It was about comfort and Gabriel kept that in mind as he moved against the hunter. Sam removed their shirts and laid them back down, pressing himself tightly against Gabriel for maximum skin contact as his lips continued to trace over his neck and shoulders and his hips rolled agonizingly slowly over Gabriel’s. Gabriel continued to whisper words of love and comfort to the hunter even as his breathing sped up. Eventually Sam moved back and divested them both of their pants and started rummaging in Gabriel’s pockets before he found what he was looking for. 

He settled back over Gabriel as a slick finger entered the archangel and Sam’s lips moved to Gabriel’s chest, tears mixing with the saliva left in its wake. Gabriel had one hand in Sam’s hair rubbing soothing circles on his scalp even as he arched up off the cot panting with pleasure. Sam added a second finger and started pumping harder and Gabriel could no longer hold in the moans and unconsciously tightened his hand in Sam’s hair. Once he had three fingers going Sam removed them and lined himself up plunging in desperately. 

Once he was fully seated he leaned down and pressed his forehead to Gabriel’s as he slowly rocked his hips. “I love you Gabriel. So much. Forever,” he whispered not noticing the tears falling into the archangel’s face. 

Gabriel lifted a hand to cup the hunter’s cheek as his other hand rested lightly on Sam’s side. “Always my precious Samshine. I’ll love you always.” Sam choked back a sob as he pressed his lips forward to Gabriel’s and picked up his pace. 

When Gabriel reached down to stroke himself Sam pushed his hand away and took over. Gabriel could tell when Sam was getting close as his motions became more frantic and Gabriel could feel himself getting close too. “Cum for me Gabriel,” Sam whispered needfully against Gabriel’s lips and that was all it took to make the archangel spill over and he pulled Sam over the edge with him. 

Once Sam was spent he collapsed on top of Gabriel who shifted them slightly so that Sam’s full weight wasn’t on him. It was a very tight fit for two on the cot, but they managed. “Thank you Gabriel,” Sam whispered gratefully. 

“You never have to thank me for that Sammy,” Gabriel whispered back pressing a kiss to the top of Sam’s head. It took less than a minute for Sam to be deeply asleep. Gabriel was starting to drift off as well. They had walked most of the day after all, but he managed to hook a finger around the bag and drag it close enough to get to the blanket. It took some doing to free it up with one hand from such an awkward angle, but he finally got it and settled it over them as well as he could without disturbing the hunter before he let himself drift off as well.


	13. Chapter 13

Gabriel woke first the next morning and began running his fingers lazily through Sam’s hair, gentle enough not to wake him. It was about twenty minutes later when Sam started to stir awake. Sam pressed a soft kiss to Gabriel’s lips and gave him a sad smile, which the archangel returned. They got up and found some clothes to put on before pulling out a couple cans for breakfast. While they were eating Gabriel turned to Sam and said, “You know we can’t stay here kiddo.”

Sam looked up sharply and said, “But Dean…you said…”

“I didn’t say we can’t be close by, but from here it’s a ten mile walk into town for supplies. We can leave Deano a note and let him know where we’ll be and park it in town,” Gabriel said trying to keep Sam from getting worked up. 

Sam thought for a minute. It did make sense. He slowly nodded. “Ok but once we find a place I want to come back and amend the note with exactly where we are staying,” Sam said firmly. 

“Of course Samsquatch,” Gabriel said with a smile and once he was finished eating, Sam found a pen and tore a blank page out of one of Bobby’s books trying to not think about how pissed Bobby would be if he knew. 

Dean,  
Gabriel and I are staying in town waiting for you. Come find us. Will come back and add a better location when we are set up somewhere. 

That done, they packed up what they still had and headed out. Sam left the note in the middle of the cot in the panic room thinking that would be the best place to make sure Dean found it. He would surely see that the rubble had been moved around and rush down to the panic room looking for Sam. 

During the walk into town Sam was wracking his brain trying to think about the people who lived there. They had spent a lot of time in the town so if he could think of someone with a basement bedroom it might save them some time searching. They were nearly there when Sam remembered that Jody Mills had mentioned something in passing about her next door neighbor renovating their basement into a room for some family member that Sam couldn’t remember to live with them. He immediately changed directions and headed towards the sheriff’s house. Or what used to be the sheriff’s house anyway. Gabriel was a caught off guard by the sudden change of direction, but quickly caught up. 

Gabriel remembered that Sam knew this town well when he led them directly to a basement that had a pretty nice set-up. There was a bedroom area with a nice bed, and then a living room area with a couch and a tv that obviously wouldn’t work, but the couch would be nice. It was pretty dusty and the doors up top were off their hinges which allowed some of the debris to get in, but they could get it cleaned up nicely with maybe a couple hours work. Gabriel whistled appreciatively. “Nice find Sammich.”

Gabriel took a moment to appreciate the irony of the fact that he was used to living in the lap of luxury with tons of space and every possible amenity at the tip of his fingers and now he was so thankful to find a dirty cramped basement with a bed and a couch. “So how do you want to do this? I can stay and get this place fixed up while you go leave a note for your brother, or we can both go and then come back and get this place livable. Might be cutting it a bit tight before nightfall. Or we can work on this place and then head out tomorrow to fix your note,” Gabriel laid out the options to Sam. 

Sam wasn’t sure how he felt about them splitting up right now. It would take at least four hours to get to Bobby’s and back, and Sam knew that it wasn’t much longer than his usual foraging trips at the last place, but he was still a bit emotionally raw from yesterday. He had to admit that letting Gabriel get this place in order while he ran back to Bobby’s was the most efficient use of their time though and agreed to do that. He grabbed a full bottle of water to take with him, but was leaving everything else. He might even be able to make it back in three hours if he hoofed it and wasn’t weighted down with supplies. He gave Gabriel a deep kiss and headed out and Gabriel started cleaning with a smile on his face. 

First he hauled all the debris out, along with the TV since it was pretty much useless and cracked anyway. The last thing they needed was it busting and getting glass all over the floor. Once everything was out he managed, with some aggravation to get the storm door back on its hinges. It still creaked something awful, and you had to put some elbow grease into it to get it open, but since the other side worked fine he wasn’t overly worried about it. He then set to getting the majority of the dust taken care of, using one of his dirtier shirts that he was about to ditch anyway. He checked the clothes in the dresser and found that whoever was staying here was about his size so that definitely made things easier. He condensed all the clothes into half the dresser leaving the rest for Sam’s stuff. He put Sam’s current clothes in the top drawer leaving the rest for new stuff he might find. He took all their water and food and lined it up neatly in the empty TV space in the entertainment center and put the flashlights on top. He knew he was being a bit anal, but he almost felt like he had a home again and wanted to make it as nice as he could, no matter how temporary it was. 

 

With the storm doors open he could hear Sam coming back from a way off as debris shifted and rattled in his wake so he smirked and quickly grabbed the can opener and got two cans open just as Sam came down the stairs. “Dinner’s ready sweetheart,” he said handing Sam a can. “How was your day?”

Sam laughed at the archangel’s antics and decided to play along. “Oh it was just fine dear. I see you got the house cleaned up like a good little wife.”

Sam got a kick to the leg for that one as they both collapsed in laughter. Once they finished eating Sam turned the conversation to more practical matters. “Ok so I think that one of us should stay here all the time in case Dean turns up,” he started. 

Gabriel thought that was rather silly since if Dean did show up it would be obvious that someone was staying here so he would know to wait, but figured he might as well let Sam run the show. “I don’t mind making the supply runs. You did it for almost two weeks while I was laid up after all,” Gabriel said amicably.

Sam smiled at him. “We can take turns. I’ll point you towards the Wal-Mart in the morning. Also Arrowhead park is only a couple miles away and has a nice lake that we can bathe in.”

“Thank you Father!” Gabriel said relieved. They hadn’t found a place to bathe in almost five days. “Is it too late to go now?” Gabriel hadn’t been keeping much track of the time today. 

Sam laughed. “There’s about four hours until the sun will start to set and it’ll take about thirty minutes to get there and the same back so if you make it quick we can both get a bath in tonight.”

Gabriel scrambled to his feet and grabbed their toiletries and a clean set of clothes from the dresser. He pressed a quick kiss to Sam’s lips, and said, “Thanks Sammy. Love you,” as he all but ran up the stairs. 

Sam shook his head still laughing. Not that he wasn’t just as excited for his turn of course. He went ahead and got his clothes ready. It only took him a few minutes to find them in the dresser and he smiled at how far Gabriel had gone to try to make them feel at home here. 

Pretty soon he began to understand what Gabriel had gone through when he went out foraging before as he was bored out of his mind. He took to searching the place to see what they had available. He basically just pulled everything out and put it into three stacks; useful, junk, and fun before he ended up with a fourth stack of porn magazines. He put them away somewhere and figured that Dean might appreciate them if he showed up. All the videos, both porn and regular went in the junk pile and he left the useful pile in the middle of the bed for the time being while he hauled all the junk upstairs and dumped it in the nearest pile of debris. He noticed the TV sitting there and rolled his eyes at the idea of Gabriel trying to haul it up the stairs by himself rather than waiting for Sam to help him. It wasn’t a small TV by any means. 

He had just brought the last armload of junk upstairs when he saw Gabriel coming back. He had made good time. It had been less than an hour and a half. He headed downstairs to grab his clothes and was just about to head back up to meet the archangel when Gabriel came down. He looked at the mess on the bed and snorted. “Figures. I spend all day cleaning and I leave you alone for an hour and come home to a mess,” he said teasingly. 

Sam laughed. “Sorry love. Was just taking inventory. That’s the useful stuff left. I wasn’t expecting you back so quick. 

Gabriel shook his head indulgently. “You said make it quick so I made it quick. I’ll take care of this. You go take a bath. You stink.” 

Sam kissed Gabriel quickly and grabbed the toiletries from him and headed out.


	14. Chapter 14

Sam got back after his bath to find all the books he had found on some of the now empty shelves of the entertainment center with the non-pornographic magazines stacked on top. The batteries and lighters had all been put in the bottom drawer of the bedside table, the playing cards on top of it along with a cribbage board. Gabriel had put all the first aid supplies and medications in the bathroom along with the cleaning supplies and the place looked nice. Sam grinned and plopped down beside the archangel on the couch leaning in for a kiss. “Do I smell better now?” he asked playfully. 

Gabriel sniffed him dramatically drawing out the moment before he mockingly crinkled his nose, “Marginally,” he teased. Sam bit impishly at his neck in response to that jab and Gabriel said, “Hey now. No biting unless you’re gonna finish what you start,” and waggled his eyebrows at the hunter.

Sam practically tackled Gabriel on the couch and growled, “Oh I’ll finish,” before capturing Gabriel’s lips in a deep kiss. They spent the remainder of the evening driving each other to new heights of passion before falling asleep wrapped around each other in the warm bed. 

The next morning after breakfast Gabriel headed out with the large and currently empty pack. Sam pointed him in the direction that the Wal-Mart should have been and the archangel set off. He rummaged around and got some food and water, but as they still had enough for a few days at least he focused more on the things that they had left behind at the old place that he would like to have back, starting with two heavy duty LED camping torches. He also grabbed Sam some more clothes as he was on his last clean set. He grabbed a handful of candles, thankful that it hadn’t been hot enough yet for them to be melted. Oh it had been plenty warm, but the heat couldn’t penetrate all the debris on top of them to melt them yet. He grabbed a couple more rain poncho’s too. They were running out and the small pocket kind were really only good for one use anyway. 

Gabriel was planning to carry the torches so he still had some room left in the bag so he made his way back to where he found the food and water and filled the rest of the pack with that and made his way back home. He found Sam resting on the couch with his feet up reading a book. Sam jumped up and grabbed the pack from him as he came downstairs and they put away the haul together. It was Gabriel’s first scavenging trip by himself so Sam felt the need to say, “You did good shorty.”

One of the lanterns found its place on the bedside table and the other was put on the dresser. They had about a week’s supply of food and water now and the candles found their way into the bottom drawer of the nightstand with the batteries and lighters. Sam put his clothes away and then got to the bottom of the bag and raised his eyebrow as he pulled out a few handfuls of batteries. Gabriel shrugged. “I didn’t see any batteries with a D on them when I was putting them away and that’s what kind the torches seem to use so I figured I’d grab some extras.”

Sam nodded proudly at the archangel. For someone who barely had any idea what batteries were for he was surprised and pleased that Gabriel had noticed something so minor. Even Sam hadn’t noticed what kind of batteries they had. 

When Sam went the next day he came back with some more luxury type stuff, including canned drinks like juice mix and condensed milk that they could put in water for some variety. He was especially glad for the fruit juice. They were getting plenty of protein from canned beans, but pretty much nothing when it came to fruits and vegetables, which he also found some cans of. It wasn’t as filling so not as good for the road, but now that they had room to stockpile it was nice to have. He also grabbed a bunch of candy bars for Gabriel who accepted them happily and rewarded the hunter properly. 

After lunch which now consisted of a can of food and another of fruit, they took their turns heading to the lake. Gabriel found that it wasn’t nearly as much fun by himself so it went much quicker rather than the times they had gone together before and spent hours playing in the water after cleaning up. He mostly just found it rather eerie by himself so didn’t linger long. 

It was just over a week later and Sam was on a supply run when he heard footsteps on the stairs. He didn’t bother looking up from the magazine he was reading assuming it was just Sam coming back but then he heard a gasp that was definitely not from Sam and his head snapped up and he stared in shock for a moment before jumping up and wrapping Dean in a tight hug, surprised when Dean hugged him back and swung him around before he ran to Kali and picked her up and spun her around laughing. “Man you guys are a sight for sore eyes,” he said happily. 

Dean wasn’t as surprised as he should have been when Gabriel hugged him. If he was as relieved to find someone else alive as Dean was then it was a more than appropriate response. After the greetings though the first thing out of Dean’s mouth was, “Where’s Sammy?” 

“He’s out on a supply run. He should be back soon,” Gabriel told him. 

“Supply run? You guys look pretty well stocked to me. Do you mind?” Dean asked gesturing to the food and water they had stacked up. 

“Please. Have at,” Gabriel said glad to share with them. “Supply runs are more a way to get out and do something nowadays. We take turns. Today was his day.”

Both Dean and Kali gratefully grabbed cans of food and bottles of water. Gabriel could tell their packs were empty. They must have pushed themselves hard to get here. He refrained from asking any questions about their journey until Sam got back but he did notice the way Kali stuck close to Dean and raised an eyebrow in surprise. He had pointed out that Kali liked Dean, but didn’t really expect this development. Then again being stuck alone and struggling for almost two months was enough to bring anyone together. 

They didn’t have long to make small talk though before Gabriel heard footsteps coming down the stairs again. He grinned happily. He couldn’t wait to see Sam’s face. Dean looked up hopefully and got to his feet. He knew logically that it couldn’t be anyone except Sam, but couldn’t truly believe it until he saw him. Gabriel was waiting by the entrance to grab the pack that he knew Sam would completely forget about as soon as he saw Dean and he was right. Sam reached the bottom step already shrugging the pack off and then looked up and froze for a split second before he dropped the pack and rushed forward into Dean’s waiting arms. 

Gabriel caught the pack before it hit the floor and just watched their reunion for a minute. Both were crying tears of relief as they held onto each other like they might disappear any second. Once he felt like he was intruding he turned his attention to unpacking and putting away the stuff that Sam had gotten. Kali started to get up to help him but he waved her off. She looked exhausted. Once everything was put away, which didn’t take long at all Gabriel grabbed the thick plastic pitcher that he had managed to find intact a few days ago along with some plastic cups. He had also found plates and bowls, but didn’t grab any of those figuring that with the food that they were eating it would be more of a hassle to clean them than to just eat out of the can. He dumped some of the fruit juice mix into the pitcher and added a few bottles of water and poured out four cups of juice. 

By the time he finished that Sam and Dean had finally let go of each other and settled on the couch next to each other. Gabriel passed out the drinks before sitting himself cross-legged on the coffee table since the couch was now full. “Ok so now that Sam’s back, I can ask. What the hell happened to you guys?”

Dean started the story, “Well part of it is a blur, but I remember waking up in the middle of what I thought was a desert and Kali was unconscious on top of me. I had no idea where we were, but supplies were short so I just picked a direction and started walking, carrying Kali with me. Eventually she woke up, but she was hurt pretty bad, so it was easier to keep carrying her than let her slow us down. She didn’t like that very much though,” he said turning to smile at her as she glared at him. 

“That first night she figured out that we were in the middle of Missouri somewhere. Thankfully I had picked west to walk which seemed to be the closest edge of what we realized was a huge blast crater. It took us almost three days to get out of there and find a place to lie low while she healed up. I stocked up at some department store in town and we were back on the road a few days later headed here. I knew if you survived you would head to Bobby’s so that’s where I headed.”

Gabriel nodded and turned to Kali. “I’m guessing you’re powerless at the moment too?”

“Yes and I don’t know why either. I have drained my powers before and it hasn’t taken nearly so long to come back,” she said annoyed. 

“Hmm. That gives me a theory,” when the others looked at him curiously he explained. “Well I’m not sure how much you two figured out about what happened but when Michael and Lucifer clashed there was a massive power overload. I poured everything I had into protecting Sam and I’m guessing you did the same for Dean.” Kali nodded. “I wonder if we got short-circuited somehow when we got blasted away.”

“Does that mean we are powerless for good?” Kali asked horrified. 

“I have no idea. It may just be taking time for it to work itself out. I’d give it a few months before getting too concerned. We have a pretty good setup here. We’re safe, well fed, and reasonably comfortable. There’s no reason to panic just yet,” Gabriel said soothingly. They would gladly take the other two in and help them get set up as well as they were.


	15. Chapter 15

“Ok so your turn. What happened to you guys?” Dean asked. 

“Well we woke up pretty much the same way. In the middle of what seemed to be a desert. Well I woke up and then waited half a day for Gabe to wake up. He was hurt pretty bad too. We were in Wisconsin so we started walking east looking for water. We figured the great lakes would be the best way to head. Once we made it out of the crater we found a town and camped there for almost two weeks. Gabe messed his knee up pretty bad and by the time we had been walking almost three days it was pretty much screwed all to hell. Once he was able to walk again we started heading here. Got here just over a week ago and have been waiting for you ever since.”

“So I’m guessing you don’t know if there are any survivors anywhere else either?” Dean asked. 

“I’m starting to doubt it to be honest,” Sam said frankly. 

“Why?” Dean asked. 

“Think about it. We know now that at least half if not all of the US is wiped out, but I haven’t seen a single plane, helicopter, tank or anything. There is no relief effort going, which tells me there isn’t anyone left to make the effort,” he said sadly and the room fell into a mourning silence. No one spoke for quite a while. 

Finally, Gabriel broke the ice saying, “Well you two look exhausted. Why don’t you crash here while Sammy and I go wash up at the lake?” 

Dean and Kali both looked longingly at the bed. Sam couldn’t imagine how long it had been since they had seen one. He glanced to Gabriel who nodded in agreement so Sam said, “Go ahead and take the bed. We’ll crash on the couch tonight and get you guys settled tomorrow.” Sam had no doubt that they would easily sleep the rest of the day and most of the night. 

“Thank you,” Kali said sincerely as she and Dean stumbled over to the bed and passed out. 

Sam and Gabriel silently got their things together and headed to the lake. As soon as they were outside Sam turned to Gabriel and asked, “Did I miss something with those two?”

Gabriel snorted. “Well they didn’t say anything, but I’m pretty sure they’re together.”

“Huh. Good for Dean,” Sam said. Gabriel smiled. It seemed both Winchester brothers had managed to get over their aversion to ‘monsters’ and in a weird twist of irony they both had fallen for one. Sam suddenly turned and swept Gabriel up in his arms spinning him around laughing. “Dean’s alive!”

Gabriel laughed along with him. He had been waiting for that reaction. Sam practically skipped his way to the lake and now that they were together they took their time making love, and then washing each other before just playing in the water for a few hours. Once they were out and dressed Sam suggested that they scout around for a place for Dean and Kali so they could have longer to rest without disturbance. Gabriel gladly agreed, so they swung by and dropped their stuff off before heading out and looking around. Thankfully it seemed that most of the houses on this street had basically the same floor plans so it was just a matter of finding another basement bedroom for them. If they were going to be stationary for a while waiting for the supernatural beings’ powers to come back, they might as well be comfortable. 

They found quite a few well stocked basements that they could scavenge from, but nowhere for Dean and Kali to live on that street so they moved on to the next street and finally got lucky. It wasn’t quite as nice as the setup they had found. No couch for one, but they figured that their place could be used for hanging out. It had a bed dresser and entertainment center and they decided to be nice and get it cleaned up for them. Once the place was clean they realized they still had a few more hours until the sun started going down so snuck back for their packs, being careful not to wake the sleeping pair and headed out to stock them up. It was easier than trying to be quiet at their place. 

Sam filled up with food and water for them while Gabriel got clothes and other supplies. He remembered Kali’s sizes and could easily guess on Dean’s. By the time they got everything unloaded twilight had set in. Gabriel suggested just sleeping where they were, but Sam pointed out that if Dean expected them to be there when he woke up he might freak if they weren’t so they rushed back, cutting across what used to be yards rather than taking the longer route on the barely there streets. Once they got back Sam stretched out on the couch and Gabriel lay mostly on top of him between him and the back of the couch. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but compared to some of the places they’d had to sleep over the last two months it was practically the Ritz. 

Sam opened his eyes the next morning to find a bright eyed archangel perched on his chest watching him. Gabriel grinned and pecked his lips before hopping up. “Hey Deano! He’s awake!” Gabriel called before turning to Sam. “Him and Kali were hanging outside so they didn’t disturb you.”

Dean barreled back down the stairs, Kali following at a more sedate pace. “Morning sunshine,” Dean said with a grin glad to have the chance to mock his brother again. 

“Yeah yeah,” Sam said groggily reaching out a hand automatically for the can Gabriel was handing him. Sam raised an eyebrow at his brother. “You’re not eating?” 

“We already ate,” Dean said with a shrug. It’s been a few days since we ran out of food so after sleeping for like sixteen hours we were famished.”

Sam nodded. As he and Gabriel finished breakfast. Gabriel then opened the bottom cabinet of the entertainment center and tossed something to Dean before grabbing his own. Dean looked at the candy bar like it was the eighth wonder of the world before looking back to Gabriel with gratitude. Sam laughed. “Dude, if Gabe’s sharing his candy you better eat it quick before he changes his mind.”

Gabriel smacked Sam’s arm as Dean ripped the wrapping off the candy bar and took the first bite with an obscene moan. Gabriel took the opportunity to tell them what he and Sam had been up to the previous night. “So we found you guys a nice place. No couch, but a bed, dresser, and entertainment center. We got it cleaned and stocked for you too. Course you’re welcome here whenever, but we thought you might like having your own place to retreat to at night,” Gabriel finished with a waggle of his eyebrows. 

Dean was game to play though, “Just like I’m sure you two want your privacy back too.”

“Oh most definitely,” Gabriel said suggestively leaning over to nuzzle Sam’s neck. Sam just rolled his eyes in response. And just like that the news of their relationships was dropped and it was just accepted and moved on. After the end of the world quibbling about unapproved partners seemed inconsequential. Dean had pretty much gotten over his beef with Gabriel when he had tried to save them, but Sam still remembered Kali trying to kill Gabriel, though he wasn’t going to bring it up. 

“You said something yesterday about washing up?” Kali asked hopefully. 

Gabriel grinned. “Yup. There is a lake nearby. Hows about we show you your new place and you can grab some clothes and then we’ll point the way.”

“You got us clothes too?” Dean asked incredulously. 

“Course. Couldn’t let you keep walking around in those rags could we?” Gabriel said shrugging it off like it was nothing, so Dean just did the same. 

Kali though turned to Gabriel and said a sincere, “Thank you.”

Once they got to the place that Sam and Gabriel had picked out for them Sam pointed out the clothes on the bed. “We didn’t go through the stuff that was already here so you can see what you can find usable later.” In the meantime, Gabriel had ducked into the bathroom and come back with the soap and shampoo they had picked up. After Dean and Kali had everything together they headed back out. “You remember how to get to Arrowhead park from here?” Sam asked Dean who nodded. “You’ll want to take a left around the factory rubble. It’s easier to climb over that way.”

“Thanks Sammy,” Dean said as he and Kali headed towards the park and Sam and Gabriel headed home. After being out all day yesterday they decided to take the day to relax and they curled up on the couch waiting for Dean and Kali to get back. 

Once they did Gabriel decided to give the brothers some time to catch up alone and announced that he and Kali were going to take a walk. That didn’t go over very well though as Dean glared at him and Sam looked uncomfortable. Gabriel realized that they were worried about his past relationship with the goddess so Gabriel stepped over and gave Sam a searing kiss before saying, “You know I love you Sammy and I’m all yours. You have nothing to worry about. I promise.” Then he turned to Dean and said, “I figure you guys would like some time to catch up alone and Kali and I have our own issues to work out anyway.” When both brothers nodded Gabriel and Kali headed outside.


	16. Chapter 16

Gabriel and Kali didn’t go far on their ‘walk’. Gabriel led a little way down the street. Far enough that the hunters wouldn’t be able to hear if there was yelling and then he turned and leaned against the nearest pile of debris with his arms crossed. Kali knew what he was waiting for and given the circumstances decided, just this once, not to be difficult. “I’m sorry I killed you, but I thought you were a spy for the angels.”

“I told you I wasn’t. I ran away from home and was in hiding and then my new family turns on me too?” Gabriel said angrily. 

“How was I supposed to know you were telling the truth?” Kali defended herself. 

“I never lied to you Kali. In all the time we knew each other, I may have played tricks, but I’ve never lied.”

“Except about your name and species you mean?” She pointed out indignantly. 

“I told you my name was Loki and it was then. I just never told you that I was someone else before and I never claimed to be a god. That’s just what I got labeled as!” Gabriel took a deep breath and ran his hand over his face. Kali was always good at bringing out his temper. Probably why they never worked out. 

Kali also realized that this was getting them nowhere and they were going to have to find a way to co-exist peacefully. “I understand Lo-Gabriel. I realized I was wrong about the time you busted in and tried to save me.”

“I tried to save them actually,” Gabriel said with a shrug. Being dishonest wasn’t going to help anyone. 

“I know,” she said with a soft smile. “But you could have just let me die anyway. So thank you.”

Gabriel gave a smile and a shrug before he changed the subject. There wasn’t much more to say on that one. “So looks like we both fell for hunters huh? Who could’ve seen that coming?”

 

In the meantime Sam and Dean were having their own conversation. As soon as their significant others were gone Dean turned to Sam and said, “So you and the pixie huh?”

“Dean…” Sam said tiredly expecting an argument. 

“No. It’s cool. I get it. Not exactly a whole lot of options these days,” Dean said waving his brother off. 

“It’s not like that?!” Sam said heatedly. 

“What do you mean it’s not like that? Last time I checked dude you were straight.”

“Yeah and last time I checked you weren’t into monsters,” Sam shot back. 

Dean sobered at that and said quietly, “Well yeah but like I said. Not a whole lot of options.”

“Is that how it is with you two?” Sam asked incredulously. Not that he would be surprised on Dean’s part, but Kali didn’t seem like the type to put up with his shit. 

“That’s how it started,” Dean shrugged. He didn’t need to expand on that for Sam to hear what he wasn’t saying. “What’s your problem with her anyway. You’re usually the one wanting to work with monsters.”

“She tried to kill Gabriel or did you forget about that Dean?”

“Oh. Right. Yeah I kinda did,” he said sheepishly. “But look. She thought he was a spy and she knows better now.”

“And that’s supposed to make it okay?” 

“No. I guess now, but please man. Just…” Dean gestured wildly trying to get his point across without words. “Besides. I’m sure they’re hashing that out as we speak.”

“Yeah ok Dean. I’ll give her a shot. If Gabriel forgives her.” Sam looked worriedly at the stairs, hoping everything was going ok with the other two. 

“Don’t be such a girl Sammy. They’re fine. She’s not gonna hurt him after he saved her life.”

Sam snorted, “Like I’m worried about her hurting him.”

Dean saw the perfect opportunity to tease his brother. “I don’t know. She’s a pretty tough broad. I think she could take him.”

“Gabe isn’t exactly a weakling either,” Sam defended. 

“Without his powers?” Dean raised an eyebrow. Gabriel didn’t exactly seem like the tough type. 

Sam decided his brother needed to have some idea what Gabriel was capable of when push came to shove so he said, “You know how I said Gabriel messed up his knee? That first night we walked like sixteen hours and when we stopped I had to cut his jeans because it was swollen so bad it was cutting off the circulation. And he walked like fifty miles on it and only let me help him for the last bit. And then got up and kept walking the next day. He’s tougher than you think.”

As expected, Dean was properly humbled by that and Sam could tell by the look on his face and Sam couldn’t help but smirk. Dean cleared his throat and just said, “So we good?” 

Sam rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah Dean. We’re good.” 

 

Gabriel and Kali had gone back to her place and grabbed hers and Dean’s packs and decided to do some ‘shopping’ while their men were catching up. Gabriel laughed at how bad she was at it and she glared at him. “Didn’t Dean teach you how to find the good stuff?” 

“No. He’s not much for teaching and I’m not much for getting snapped at while he tries,” she said bitterly. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Yeah that sounds like Deano. C’mere. Let me show you,” Gabriel said and spent some time teaching her the best way to do things just as Sam had taught him. 

“You are better at this than I expected,” Kali said thoughtfully after a while.

“Yeah well, Sammy has a little more patience,” Gabriel said with a shrug. 

“I mean all of this. Living without your powers. Surviving this madness.”

Gabriel gave her a lopsided smile, “If there’s anything I am it’s a survivor. I’m like a cockroach that way,” he said with a laugh, but Kali wasn’t in the mood for lightening the mood. Seeing that Gabriel sighed. He could imagine how badly she was struggling with the idea of being powerless. “I’m not saying I like it. In fact, it’s pretty damn terrible.”

“You don’t act like it,” she pointed out. 

“I’ve found something to hold on to. Whenever I feel like giving up I just think about Sam and how much he needs me. We made a deal back at the beginning. We both live or we both die. We keep each other strong.”

Kali sighed, “I don’t think Dean needs me. In fact, I’m pretty much useless like this.”

Gabriel put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Let me give you the low down on Deano. He is emotionally stunted, but he wouldn’t put up with you if you were useless to him. I mean sure, he’s the classic hero, always trying to save the damsel in distress, but he’s a love em and leave em type. If he’s sticking around that should tell you something. I can see how worried he is about you. He cares. There’s more than one way to be strong Kali. You’ve just never needed any others before. Trust me. He needs you more than you know.”

They made it back to Kali’s place and were unpacking their supplies when Gabriel pulled something out of a side pocket that made him raise an eyebrow in confusion. Kali looked over and saw what he had and said, “Dean said you told him to guard it with his life. He figured it was probably useless now, but didn’t want to take the chance of it being more important than he thought so he held onto it.”

Gabriel laughed. “I’m guessing he didn’t word it like that.” 

Kali lauged too. “I think his exact words were ‘who knows what kind of angel hoodoo he put on this thing’” and Gabriel just laughed harder. 

“Well just so you know it is pretty useless now. I did put some ‘angel hoodoo’ on it, but nothing that could help us now.” He placed it on their dresser. “I’ll let you guys decide what to do with it.” Gabriel was no stranger to sentimentality so he wasn’t just going to take it upon himself to throw it away for them, though he didn’t see why they would want to keep it. 

Once they were all unpacked they headed back to Gabriel and Sam’s place. Sam looked up and asked, “You guys good?”

“Yeah we’re good Samsquatch.”

“Good,” Sam said pulling Gabriel down into his lap as Kali sat next to Dean. Dean draped an arm around her and she leaned into him with a small smile. Gabriel gave her a nod and a smile, which Dean missed but Sam didn’t. He would get the story from Gabriel later though. 

The spent the next few hours just hanging out and they could almost forget that the world had ended. Until Sam started passing out cans for dinner while Gabriel whipped up some condensed milk for them. They were all hungry but Kali ate like she was starving. So much so that Sam offered her a third can after her beans and fruit which she gladly accepted.


	17. Chapter 17

Once Dean and Kali headed to their place after dinner, Sam turned to Gabriel and pulled him into a kiss before asking, “So what was all that wink wink nudge nudge stuff with Kali when you two came back?” 

Gabriel smiled indulgently at him. “You know how your brother is with feelings and stuff. She was feeling a little underappreciated and insecure and it doesn’t help that she feels useless without her powers. I gave her a little pep talk is all,” he explained. “What did you think it was?” Gabriel knew what Sam was thinking, but he knew that it had to be gotten out into the open before they could move past it. 

“I don’t know. I was just curious is all,” Sam said non-chalantly. 

“Bullshit Sammy,” Gabriel said softly from where he was still perched on Sam’s lap. “Talk to me.”

Sam sighed. “It’s just…I know it’s stupid…but well…when we got together we were all alone in the world. There was no one else, and then your ex-girlfriend comes into the picture and…” he trailed off. 

Gabriel got it. He really did. He would probably be a little insecure too if the situation were reversed. He turned so that he was straddling Sam’s lap and looked the hunter in the eyes. “Are you just with me because I was the only option?” he asked seriously, already pretty sure of the answer but trying to make a point. 

“What? No! Of course not. I love you Gabriel,” Sam said quickly. 

“And that’s the same reason I’m with you. I would have been with you a long time ago if I’d seen any indication from you that you felt the same. It has nothing to do with you being the only option. You would always be my first choice. Yes, Kali and I were together, but that was a long time ago, and there’s a reason we didn’t work out. Even if it had been her and I instead of you and I, I would never have touched her. I’m yours Sammy. Completely and forever,” Gabriel said kissing Sam deeply. 

Sam held Gabriel tightly, but when they broke apart Sam pointed out something else that his overactive brain had hit on. “But if you two get your powers back you’ll be immortal again. What happens when Dean and I die and it’s just you two left?”

Gabriel resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “First of all, if I get my powers back first thing I’m going to do is make you immortal too. If you think I’m ever letting you go you’re nuts. Second of all, even if I couldn’t do that, I would be mourning you for a long time. I couldn’t say what would happen centuries down the road, but if it did come to that would you really begrudge me any happiness I could find?” It really was a moot point, but he wanted to make Sam see how silly he was being. 

“You would make me immortal? You can do that?” Sam asked.

“Of course I can and I would.”

“Do I get a say in it at all?” Sam asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Nope. You’ll forgive me eventually and like we’ve said before. We both live or we both die. If I’m stuck living forever then so are you,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

“I’m sorry Gabe. I know I’m being ridiculous,” Sam said resting his forehead on the archangel’s shoulder. 

“Don’t be sorry Sammy,” Gabriel said softly as he ran a hand through the hunter’s hair. “I’d probably be just as ridiculous if your ex popped up and we had to live in such close quarters. I get it. And I will tell you as often as I need to just how much I love you.” At that last part Gabriel had lifted Sam’s head and gave him a long loving kiss. 

Sam’s arms tightened around him as he kissed him back just as earnestly. Gabriel moved from Sam’s lips and began kissing across his jawline and down to his neck while his hands began unbuttoning Sam’s shirt. “You are so special my sweet Sammy,” he whispered against the hunter’s neck. Once Sam’s shirt was unbuttoned Gabriel slid it off his shoulders continuing to whisper, “the most precious thing in all of creation.” He kissed across Sam’s collarbone as his hands roamed firmly over the hunter’s chest. 

He slid off Sam’s lap and grabbed his hands leading him to the bed with a smile. He pressed Sam back onto the mattress and pulled his own shirt off before climbing on top of him. He began pressing soft kisses to the hunter’s chest. “So strong.” He moved his hands down to unbutton Sam’s pants. “So smart.” He slid Sam’s pants and boxers off in one move before doing the same to his own and going back to his previous position. “So kind.”

He slid a lubed finger into the hunter, flicking a tongue over his nipple. “I’m yours my dear Sammy.” He pressed against Sam’s prostate and Sam arched his back looking for more, his hands roughly running over Gabriel’s back. Gabriel’s finger started pumping in and out. “All yours, until the end of time.” He added a second finger picking up the pace as they were both aching by now. “You are priceless to me.” He was panting now from the effort of holding back as his lips continued trailing over Sam’s chest. “I’ll never give you up.” He inserted a third finger pumping furiously as Sam was moaning beneath him. 

“I’ll never hurt you.” He slid in slowly and began rocking his hips gently. “I’ll never leave you.” He leaned down to kiss Sam who moved a hand to the back of Gabriel’s neck and kissed him with everything he had as he lifted his hips to meet Gabriel in perfect rhythm. Gabriel slowly increased the pace and was thrusting in and out of the hunter. When they broke for air Gabriel moved his lips back to Sam’s neck and Sam’s hand moved up to rest on the back of Gabriel’s head. “I will always love you.” His hand moved between them and began stroking Sam’s cock as he started moving faster and harder. “I will…treasure you…forever.” He latched his lips onto the sweet spot on Sam’s neck and sucked on it as the hunter spilled over between them gasping Gabriel’s name. Gabriel was pulled over the edge with him and as he rode out his orgasm his sucking turned back to gentle kisses. “My precious Sammy,” he whispered as he curled up to the hunter’s side. 

Sam wrapped his arms tightly around the archangel and all his fears and insecurities were washed away. How could he doubt anything after that? “I love you so much Gabriel. Forever,” he whispered. 

“Forever,” Gabriel replied as he pulled the blanket over them and wrapped his arm tightly around Sam’s stomach resting his head on the hunter’s shoulder as they drifted off to sleep. 

 

The next morning, they were shaken awake by a frantic Dean. “Guys. Wake up. There’s something wrong with Kali.”

They both scrambled out of bed grabbing for clothes while Dean turned around and started pacing impatiently. It took all of twenty seconds for them to be dressed and headed out the door. “What’s wrong with her Dean?” Gabriel asked seriously. 

“I don’t know. She’s all dizzy and nearly passed out and then she started throwing up,” he said nervously. Normally Dean wouldn’t be so worried about something like that, but this was a whole new world. One without doctors or hospitals or easy access to medicine and it was the woman he loved that was like this and he was just a little on edge. 

They found Kali on her hands and knees just outside the door to their basement, retching. Gabriel fell to his knees next to her and placed a hand over her forehead. “No fever,” he announced. He glanced nervously up at Sam, hoping the hunter wouldn’t have a problem with him taking care of her but Sam just nodded at him and gave him a warm, open smile. Gabriel smiled back at him and turned back to Kali relieved that he wasn’t going to catch grief for this. “Can one of you guys go get me a cloth and pour some water on it?” Gabriel asked as he grabbed her hair and twisted it into a messy bun before grabbing the nearest long thin piece of debris and pushing in through holding it in place just as Dean came back with a wet rag. 

Gabriel placed it over the back of her neck while reaching a hand down to her wrist to check her pulse. It was a little erratic but not overly worrying. “You mentioned that until a couple days ago she hadn’t eaten in a while?” Gabriel asked Dean as Kali was still too weak to speak. 

“Yeah. We hadn’t had a chance to resupply for almost a week so we were out of food for about three days.” Dean started to relax thinking that it was just her body reacting to suddenly having food, not realizing that if it was going to do that then it would have done so the first time she ate not two days later. 

Gabriel took a deep breath and closed his eyes wishing for patience and trying to get his temper under control before he opened his mouth again and berated the hunter. He was pretty sure he knew what was going on here and if he was right then Dean was a complete and utter idiot. About that time Kali finally stopped vomiting and Gabriel rubbed her back. “You ok sweety?” he asked softly. She nodded tentatively and looked at him with wide terrified eyes. She had never been sick before obviously. 

Gabriel looked at Sam and mouthed ‘Stay with her?’ He needed to get Dean alone to find out if he was right or not and rip him a new one if he was. Sam nodded and stepped forward to her other side as he and Gabriel helped her up. “Deano and I are going to go get you some medicine. Let’s get you lying down for now and we’ll be back as soon as we can okay?” Gabriel said soothingly. 

“Gabriel…” she said fearfully. 

“Don’t worry honey. You’ll be just fine. Sammy’ll take care of you while we’re gone and we’ll have you feeling better in no time,” he assured her as he lay her down in bed. He couldn’t imagine how horrifying this must be for her. She probably thought she was dying or something. 

Gabriel grabbed Dean’s arm roughly and hauled him back up the stairs and as they started walking towards what was left of the store Dean snatched his arm away and said, “What the hell Gabriel?”

Gabriel spun on Dean with fire in his eyes, “What the hell me?! Let me guess, condoms weren’t exactly high on your list of priorities while you’ve been sleeping with her huh?” and then he spun back around and continued on towards the store leaving Dean standing there dumbfounded for a moment before he was rushing to catch up. “But…that can’t…we’re different species for crying out loud!” he defended himself. 

“Her body is just as human as yours, dumbass,” Gabriel snarled at him. 

“But then why didn’t she say anything…” 

“She probably didn’t think about it. She’s a goddess. She can’t get pregnant unless she wants to normally, but now without her powers, the possibility most likely never dawned on her,” Gabriel pointed out heatedly. 

“But…I can’t…we can’t…it’s…” Dean sat roughly on the nearest pile of debris as his knees gave out under him. 

Gabriel sighed heavily and reigned in his temper. Yes, Dean had been a complete moron, but it hadn’t been purposeful and the guy was obviously in shock. “Look Dean. I get it. It’s horrible timing and this whole mess sucks, but right now we have to focus on helping her and the baby. Everything she’s been through, especially not eating for days at a time isn’t good for either of them and if we don’t start fixing it now we could lose them both and I know you don’t want that,” Gabriel said patiently. He hated being so blunt but Dean needed to realize what was at stake here. Wanted or not, that baby needed to be born healthy. Without access to doctors or hospitals losing the baby could very well be fatal for Kali too and there was no way to tell just how bad off they were at the moment. They may be on borrowed time already. Then again it could just be morning sickness like many pregnant women get, but given everything she had been through Gabriel wasn’t about to take the chance. 

Dean took a few deep breaths before looking helplessly up at Gabriel. “Ok so what do we do?” he asked getting up and continuing walking much faster than he had been before. 

“First thing we need to do is see if we can scrounge up some intact pre-natal vitamins, find some more nutritious food and get her eating more, and hope we can find something safe to settle her stomach so the food doesn’t come right back out. We’ll pick up some more milk and fruits and veggies because she will need as much of that as she can get. Father knows we have enough beans for protein, but if you can find some canned meat that would be great. It sucks that everything is canned and loaded with salt, but we will have to make do. After that all we can do is hope.”

“How do you know all this?” Dean asked as they were rummaging through the wreckage. 

“I’ve been around a long time Deano. You’d be surprised how much I know. Now I’ll take care of the medicine part, you go ahead and start with the foodstuffs.” Thankfully Gabriel had thought to grab their packs as he headed out.


	18. Chapter 18

Sam sat next to Kali on the bed. “You need anything?” he asked softly. 

“Water would be nice,” she asked hopefully. Sam smiled at her and went to get some water for her. After helping her sit up slightly to drink it she asked, “Why are you being so nice to me?”

Sam looked at her curiously. He didn’t think she had picked up on the hostility he had been trying to hide from her. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

“You don’t like me. It’s been plain as day since we got here.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying…”

“Oh you’ve been perfectly polite. Nothing to apologize for,” she waved him off. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re being so nice now.”

“Besides the fact that you’re sick and only a jerk isn’t nice to someone who’s sick?” he asked with a half-smile. She narrowed her eyes clearly expecting more of an answer. If she could figure out what his problem was maybe they could work past it. It would be a nightmare living so closely with someone you don’t like after all. “Dean asked me to give you a chance. He really loves you, you know.” He remembered what Gabriel had said about her worries about Dean and God knows Dean wouldn’t say so, but Sam could tell so he might as well help reassure her. 

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Thank you Sam.” She considered how to word the question she really wanted an answer to that he kept dancing around before finally deciding to just be blunt. “Why don’t you like me?”

“Why?” Sam asked surprised that she would ask such a thing. 

“I’m not saying that I haven’t done anything to warrant it, but if you tell me what, in particular, is the problem then maybe we can work it out and make things easier on all of us.”

Sam got up and turned away from her. It would be a cold day in hell before he would tell her about his insecurities that weren’t really an issue any longer so he just gave her the other reason. “You tried to kill Gabriel. I thought you did kill him,” he said just loud enough for her to hear. “I can’t look at you without seeing the sword stabbing into his chest.”

“I have apologized to him already, but I will apologize to you now too. I am sorry. I was wrong. But from what your brother says you have both done the same in the past.” She made sure to give the apology first, but she was curious as to why this time should be so different. 

Sam sighed and turned back to face her. She did have a point. “That was before…before I started to care about him. Plus, I was still reeling from that when we were thrown into this nightmare and I haven’t exactly had any time to process and get over it.” He sat back down next to her on the bed. “I will get over it though. It might just take some time. So it’s not that I don’t like you. It’s just that there’s a lot of baggage in the way okay?” he said squeezing her hand comfortingly. 

“I can understand that. This is difficult for all of us. It has been a very long few months,” she said tiredly. 

“Yeah. It really has. You’ll be okay though. It’s probably just a stomach bug or something. Humans get sick like this all the time.” Sam knew how scary it must be being sick for the first time ever. He had seen the same helplessness in Gabriel’s eyes when he was injured, but at least he knew what was going on. 

“An insect in my stomach?” she said distastefully. “And this happens to humans regularly?”

Sam couldn’t help but laugh. “No. Not an insect. A bug is another word for a virus or bacteria that makes you sick. And yes it does happen often and is almost never fatal.” He would have liked to say it was never fatal, but couldn’t bring himself to lie to her. They lapsed into a mostly comfortable silence and it took a little while for Sam to realize that she had fallen asleep. 

He wasn’t exactly comfortable sitting on the bed with her while she slept so he grabbed one of the magazines they had lying around and sat on the floor next to the bed. They would have to see if they could scrounge up some more furniture for this place. 

Dean and Gabriel made it back a little over an hour later with full packs. Sam raised an eyebrow. He thought they had just been going for medicine. Gabriel gently woke Kali up and helped her sit before handing her a bottle of water and pulling a bunch of pill bottles from his pockets before dishing them out. “Take two of these every morning and every night for the next few days and then just in the morning after that,” he said handing her the first few pills. “Take one of these whenever you feel sick to your stomach. I have some stronger stuff but I’m hoping we won’t need it because it isn’t the best for you. It’s just better than losing what food you have in your stomach.” 

Sam leaned over to look at the bottles curiously and couldn’t help the gasp that escaped before he turned to glare at Dean. How could he be so stupid? Gabriel put a hand on his arm and shook his head cutting his eyes to Kali. Sam got the hint. They needed to keep her calm. Gabriel continued talking though. “You need to start eating more too,” he said giving her instructions on what to eat and how often. 

“What’s going on Gabriel?” she asked getting the impression that there was more to this than she knew. 

He patted her hand and stepped back. “Uh-uh. I’m letting Deano field this one,” he said waving Dean over. 

He stood next to her nervously shifting his feet for a moment. “Um…it’s like this…well…we’re…you’re pregnant,” he finally just blurted out. 

“I’m WHAT!?” she yelled. 

Gabriel rushed back to her side. “Kali. Honey. You need to stay calm. Relax. It’s not good for the baby.”

“We can’t have a baby right now. Not in this!” she said. 

“Well regardless you are having a baby and if you lose it, with no doctors or anything around it could kill you too, so take care of yourself. Please,” Gabriel said. He knew what would run through her mind and he couldn’t really blame her under the circumstances, but he wanted to make sure she knew it wasn’t an option. 

Kali took a deep breath and forced calm. She wasn’t a naturally calm person though so it wasn’t easy. “Ok. So just eat and take these medications?” she asked. 

“And rest and stay calm. I don’t want you getting out of bed any more than strictly necessary for at least a couple weeks and we can see how you’re doing after that,” Gabriel said firmly. “We’ll make sure that at least one of us is always here with you in case you need anything.” Gabriel grabbed a can of tuna and another of peas and handed them to her while he mixed up some milk for her. “Start with this and have Deano get you some more if you’re still hungry. We’ll give you two some time alone. I’ll be back to check on you in a few hours okay?” 

Kali and Dean both nodded so Gabriel grabbed Sam and they headed out. Once they were out of earshot Sam said, “Pregnant!? How could Dean be so reckless!”

Gabriel chuckled. “Oh believe me Samsquatch. He already got an earful from me on that subject. Would you believe that he didn’t think he could get her pregnant because they’re, and I quote, different species?”

Sam’s mouth just dropped open in shock. “Are you serious?” Sam had no other response to that. When they got back to their place Gabriel grabbed their bathing stuff and Sam looked at him curiously. “Might as well take the opportunity to clean up while they are talking.”

“We shouldn’t be too long though just in case, Dr. Gabe,” Sam said with a fond smile. 

Gabriel chuckled at that. “Well I’m the closest thing you idiots have to a doctor so might as well,” he teased ducking the hand that was about to smack him and sticking his tongue out at the hunter as he ran away laughing. 

Sam ran after him and when they got close to the lake they started stripping their clothes off along the way, dropped their stuff by the bank and just jumped right in. They finished quickly and headed back, not taking any extra time for fun. Sam may have been the one to mention it, but Gabriel didn’t want to be too far away either. 

On the way back Gabriel said, “I hate to say it, but I think we need to start splitting up again for this stuff. At least for a while. I can run you through what to do in case of emergency since obviously Dean would be too worried for anything to stick in that sieve he calls a brain and one of us can always be close by. That way you can stay with Kali and help her out while Dean comes to get me.”

“Yeah. I think that’s a good idea,” Sam said. He would miss swimming with Gabriel, but some things were more important. Namely his niece or nephew. Shit. “I’m going to be an uncle,” he said in awe. 

Gabriel grinned. “Finally hit you did it?” 

Sam turned to Gabriel with a grin. “We’re going to be uncles,” he amended. 

“We?” Gabriel raised an eyebrow still grinning. 

“Far as I’m concerned we might as well be married so yeah, we,” Sam said happily before he realized what he said and started stumbling over his words. “If you want…I mean…we don’t…”

Gabriel rolled his eyes affectionately and pulled Sam down for a kiss. “Of course I want, doofus.”

“Good,” Sam grinned again. “This is about the worst time possible for a baby though.”

“Tell me about it,” Gabriel said as he plopped down on their couch and Sam got them some food too. They had missed breakfast with the crisis and all.


	19. Chapter 19

“I hope my taking care of Kali like that didn’t bother you,” Gabriel told Sam. He wouldn’t stop taking care of her of course, but he wanted Sam to know that he was taking his feelings into consideration. 

Sam smiled warmly at him. “No Gabriel. You’re fine.” He reached over and tucked a stray hair behind the archangel’s ear. “How could I possibly be insecure after last night?” he said sincerely before kissing Gabriel. 

“I’m glad Sammy,” Gabriel said genuinely. “I never want you to doubt my feelings for you.”

“Thank you for not letting my ridiculous fears bother you,” Sam said. He knew that Gabriel would have been well within his rights to feel like Sam didn’t trust him or was trying to drive a wedge between him and Kali. 

“Of course not. I understand completely and I’m glad that you talked to me about it. I don’t want you to feel like you have to hold back either. If something is bothering you, always tell me.”

“I will,” Sam said with a smile. “Same goes for you, you know.”

About an hour later they headed back to Dean and Kali’s and stopped outside the door, which was obviously open so they didn’t have to waste batteries to get light. “Knock Knock!” Gabriel called down. 

“C’mon in!” Dean yelled back. Once they were inside Dean did something he probably should have done earlier. “Sorry for barging in on you like that this morning.”

“Dean. If there’s ever an emergency like that, you better barge in,” Gabriel said seriously before turning to Kali who was now sitting up in bed. “How you feeling?”

“Better. My stomach doesn’t hurt anymore and I’m not feeling dizzy either.”

“That’s a good sign,” Gabriel said patting her leg reassuringly. 

Sam took that opportunity to speak up, “Hey guys…um…congratulations. I mean, I know it’s bad timing and all, but still.”

“Thanks Sammy,” Dean said with a smile. “We’re still trying to get used to the idea, you know.”

Sam laughed. “I can imagine. So I’m curious. The baby. Will it be human or will it be…um…” Sam searched for the right word.

“I swear to god Sammy if the word monster comes out of your mouth…” Dean left the threat hanging. 

“What? God no Dean. That’s my niece or nephew in there for crying out loud! I was thinking more along the lines of baby god or goddess or powerful or something like that. Not monster! Geez!”

Dean deflated at that. Seems he was already protective of the baby and Gabriel and Kali looked at each other amused. Gabriel answered Sam’s question though. “Honestly I have no idea. If she had her powers when the baby was conceived then yes it would have powers, but since she didn’t it could go either way really.” 

Sam and Gabriel spent most of the afternoon there before they noticed Kali getting tired and decided to head home. “Remember Deano. Anything out of the ordinary happens, come get me. Even if it doesn’t seem like a big deal,” Gabriel warned as they left. 

“I will Gabriel. And thanks,” Dean said gratefully. He was way over his head and was glad that someone knew what to do. 

Once they got back Sam pulled Gabriel into his lap. “Something’s on your mind,” he observed. 

Gabriel kissed the tip of Sam’s nose, “I’m just worried Samsquatch.”

“Is it that serious?” he asked.

“It could be. Letting yourself get into such a state while pregnant is always dangerous, but add to the fact that we can’t get fresh food and no medical attention, and yeah. It could be very serious.”

“You didn’t tell them that.”

“Of course not. They don’t need the stress. It would only make things worse,” Gabriel said tiredly. “All we can do now is hope. I just wish I could see what was going on. Being powerless is like being both blind and deaf at once.”

Sam tightened his arms around the archangel and pressed a kiss to his temple. “It’ll be okay Gabe. You just gotta have faith.”

Gabriel wiggled down and placed his head contentedly on Sam’s shoulder. “I’m working on it, Sammy.”

 

After a week Gabriel agreed to let Kali get up long enough to go wash. She was doing much better. At the end of the two weeks, he let her get back to reasonable activity. She still wasn’t allowed to go on supply runs because there was too much heavy lifting involved. Gabriel could see the early signs of hypertension, but couldn’t see anything he could do about that. All canned goods had high salt content which is likely what was causing it. It would probably also cause swelling of her extremities later in the pregnancy too. 

A few weeks after Kali was able to get up and around Gabriel woke abrubtly and sat straight up in bed an hour or so before they normally woke up. Sam rolled over groggily and said, “Gabe? What is it?”

“My powers are coming back!” he said laughing happily. 

“Really!?” Sam said excitedly. 

“Yeah. I can’t really do anything with them yet until they get stronger but they are there!” He turned and tackled Sam on the bed peppering him with small kisses. “My powers are coming back,” he said again unable to contain his happiness. That happiness was contagious apparently as Sam was laughing with him. 

“This calls for a celebration!” Sam said as he reached under the mattress and pulled out something he had been saving for when the baby was born, but maybe he’d find another one. Or by then Gabriel could snap something up. 

“Whiskey? Really? You’ve been holding out on me Sammich,” Gabriel said shaking his finger in Sam’s face. 

Sam laughed. “I found it last week in one of the basements I explored. I was saving it for a special occasion he said holding the bottle out to Gabriel who took it and wrenched it open before turning it up. He passed it back to Sam who did the same. 

By the time Dean and Kali got there mid-morning, half the bottle was gone and both Sam and Gabriel were completely hammered and beyond happy. “Dude seriously? You’ve been holding out on me!” Dean said grabbing the bottle and taking a long swig himself as the other two burst into giggles. 

“That’s what…he said…” Sam gasped through his laughter. Kali shook her head at their antics and just sat on the couch. Before long all three of them were plastered and happy and by late afternoon Sam and Gabriel were passed out in a heap on the couch while Dean was snoring away draped upside down over the coffee table. Kali just shrugged and decided there was no reason for a perfectly good bed to go to waste and lay down for her own nap. 

None of them woke until the sun was pouring in. Kali was eating breakfast and Sam was the first of the men to wake as he was facing the stairs where the evil light was coming from. He groaned loudly and said, “Oh God. My head.”

That woke Gabriel up who echoed his groan and said, “My father isn’t even this cruel.”

Despite the fact that neither of them had spoken in more than a whisper Dean said, “Dudes. Not so loud. It hurts.”

Kali just snickered quietly enjoying the morning entertainment with her breakfast. Unfortunately for the guys her cravings had hit so when they looked over and saw her beans mixed with peaches that she was scooping up with a chocolate bar they all scrambled for the stairs trying to get outside before they barfed. They made it barely and Kali just laughed loudly. She wasn’t going to begrudge them the chance to get drunk after everything that had happened, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t enjoying their pain. She was nice enough to dig out the ibuprofen for them for after they finished emptying their stomachs. 

It wasn’t until mid-afternoon that they felt human again and managed to eat something and Dean thought to ask, “So what was the party for anyway?”

“My powers are coming back,” Gabriel said happily. 

“And you couldn’t just heal us from that hangover?” Dean asked petulantly. 

“I can’t do anything with them yet. They’re still too weak. I can just tell that they are there,” Gabriel said. 

Kali smiled happily. That gave her hope for her own powers.


	20. Chapter 20

Gabriel’s powers were returning slowly. Too slowly. They were still barely there two weeks later when he and Sam were woken by a panicked Dean. “Gabriel! There’s something wrong!”

Gabriel cursed and jumped out of bed grabbing a pair of pants and not even bothering with a shirt trying to hop into his pants as he was headed for the stairs. Once he had them up he followed Dean at a dead run leaving Sam to catch up. 

Sam was barreling down the stairs just as Gabriel fell to his knees next to the bed and caught sight of the blood between her legs. “Fuck!” He put a hand on her stomach and closed his eyes. He thankfully had enough powers to see what was happening, but it didn’t help much. 

“What is it? What’s going on?” Dean asked frantically. 

“The placenta has ruptured,” Gabriel said getting up and pacing. 

“What does that mean? What can we do? Gabriel!” Dean was beyond panicked by this point and Gabriel wasn’t doing much better. Sam was just standing there in shock. He knew what that meant. 

“Just shut up and let me think for a damn minute,” Gabriel snapped impatiently as Kali was crying and clutching her stomach in pain. After a minute Gabriel stopped and turned to Sam with a pained look on his face. “You remember what to do in case of emergencies?” he asked seriously. 

“Well yeah, but not this…” Sam said nervously. “What are you…”

“I’m gonna use what power I have to try to heal them, but it will knock me out for a while. Hopefully it will work and they will be just fine.”

“If it doesn’t work?” Dean asked having pulled himself together for the most part. Gabriel didn’t have the heart to answer and just knelt beside the bed again. “Gabriel! If it doesn’t work!?”

Sam stepped up next to his brother and put a hand on his shoulder blinking the tears from his eyes and said quietly, “Then they die.”

Dean reached out an arm blindly as if to steady himself and Sam immediately gripped it with his other arm. “Sammy…” he whined helplessly. 

“It’ll work Dean. I know it will,” he said as he watched the glow coming from Gabriel’s hands. As Gabriel slumped forward, unconscious both brothers rushed forward. Sam scooped up Gabriel in his arms and for lack of anywhere else to put him just set him on the floor out of the way for now. 

“How are you feeling?” he heard Dean ask Kali. 

“Better than I have in months,” she said relieved as Sam got back over to them. “No pain or nausea or lightheadedness?” Sam asked.

“No,” she said with a smile. 

Sam looked a little uncomfortable with the next part. “I’m gonna…um…step outside and you can clean up and check if you’re still bleeding,” he stammered out gesturing towards her lower regions blushing brightly before scrambling out the door. 

About five minutes later he heard Dean call out, “We’re good!” and he came rushing back in. “No more bleeding,” he said smiling brightly. 

“Thank god,” he breathed out in relief. It seemed that it had worked. Gabriel had managed to heal them completely. Crisis averted, he then turned to his unconscious lover. He knew that Gabriel was fine. He could feel him breathing when he had moved him but he couldn’t help but check his pulse and his skin temperature as he knelt beside him. 

“You need any help Sammy?” Dean asked, loathe to leave Kali’s side unless it was necessary. Sam just shook his head and Dean said with tears in his eyes, “We owe him more than we could ever repay.”

Sam snorted. “Like he would ever let you try.” He turned back to his brother and asked, “You guys gonna be okay here if I take him home?”

Dean looked at Kali who nodded and turned back to Sam and said, “Yeah we’re good. If we’re not there when he wakes up, tell him thank you for us.”

Sam walked over and squeezed Dean’s shoulder tightly, before uselessly brushing Kali’s hair out of her face. “I will. Let me know if you guys need anything, and stay in bed the rest of the day to be safe.” Sam went back to Gabriel and lifted him up and started walking out waving off Dean’s offer to help him. They had worn a pretty good path between their houses so it’s not like he would have to climb over things. 

He got back and settled Gabriel in their bed. He wished he knew how long Gabriel would be out for, but he wasn’t sure that even Gabriel would know. He smoothed Gabriel’s hair back before heading over to grab himself some breakfast as the sun was just starting to come up. He took a shaky breath as he thanked an absent god that Gabriel had been able to heal Kali and the baby. Like he had said, it had taken time, but Kali was now as close as a sister to him and he couldn’t imagine losing her. 

He read for a couple hours before he restlessly went to check on Kali. “Knock knock!” he called from the top of the stairs. 

“C’mon down!” Dean called back. 

Sam smiled to see Kali sitting up in bed looking healthier than she had in a long time. He hadn’t realized how bad she looked until she was well. The sunken look to her eyes was gone and her skin was at least three shades darker. Even her skin had a shine to it that had been missing before. “How are you feeling?” Sam asked. 

“I’m feeling great,” she said. “Really.”

“I’m guessing Gabriel is still out?” Dean asked. 

“Yeah. I don’t know how long it will be. I don’t want to leave him alone for long, but I needed to check on you and make sure you were still good.”

“I’m fine Sam. Thank you,” Kali said with a warm smile. 

Sam went back home and had lunch, then read some more, then had dinner, and still Gabriel hadn’t woken up. Once it got dark he settled into bed beside the archangel and pulled him close. 

When Dean and Kali stopped by the next morning they found Sam fretfully mopping at Gabriel’s brow with a wet cloth. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said relieved as they came in. “Dean, do you think you could try to find some liquid fever medication, or some dissolving capsules or something? Gabriel is burning up.”

“I’m on it,” Dean said rushing out the door as fast as he could. 

“What can I do?” Kali asked wringing her hands helplessly. 

Sam wracked his brain for something she could do to feel useful. “Can you grab one of those cans of chicken soup and drain the broth into a cup. I’ll see if I can get him to swallow a little bit.”

With Kali behind Gabriel sitting him up slightly, Sam was able to massage his throat into swallowing about half a cup of broth. It was slow going though because by then Dean was back after over an hour. “So we have two choices. We have children’s chewables or adult cold medicine with only a little fever reducer.”

“Let me see them both,” Sam said holding out his hand. He compared them for a few minutes before he grabbed the Jr Tylenol Meltaways. The dose for up to 90 pounds was three tablets so he would give Gabriel five. He slid them into his mouth one at a time as they melted and he subconsciously swallowed. Once that was done he started feeding him some more broth. 

Dean stepped over and placed a hand on Gabriel’s neck since Kali was still mopping his brow with the damp cloth. “Shit man. He’s really burning up.” 

“I know,” Sam said worriedly. 

Dean chewed his lip for a moment in thought before he said, “I’ll be back in a bit.” 

When he came back he was dragging a contraption with two long poles and strips of cloth tied every few inches between them. “If his fever doesn’t come down soon, we can get him to the lake. It’s cool enough that it should be able to help.”

“Thank you Dean,” Sam said gratefully. 

After about half an hour Gabriel’s fever was still just as high so Sam carried him over to Dean’s makeshift stretcher and laid him down as he and Dean each grabbed an end and headed out. The stretcher definitely made it easier to carry him that far while climbing over stuff. Once they got to the bank of the lake, Kali and Dean helped Sam get Gabriel out of his clothes leaving his boxers in place and Sam stripped to his boxers as well and carried Gabriel in. 

He made sure to keep Gabriel’s head on his shoulder out of the water and kept one hand bathing his face in the cool water. Sam’s legs were getting tired from treading water. Unfortunately, there were no shallow points for him to stand in. After about an hour Dean stripped down too and swam over to Sam. “I got him for a while if you need to rest your legs,” he offered. 

Sam nodded gratefully and pulled himself to the shore, sitting tiredly on the rock wall where he was joined by Kali as she dangled her feet in the water. She wasn’t comfortable undressing so much in front of so many people so she was avoiding it if she could, but if she was needed she would do it. Gabriel was in this position because he saved her life and her baby’s after all. “He’ll be okay Sam,” she said soothingly. 

“He has to be,” Sam said, his voice breaking. She put a hand on his back and the tears started to fall from his eyes. “After everything we’ve been through. Everything we’ve survived. I’m not going to let a little fever take him out,” he said shakily. 

After about half an hour he grabbed another handful of the Tylenol and went back to Dean and Gabriel, making sure to keep his hand above the water and fed him the Tylenol one by one again before taking the archangel back from Dean. Dean got out of the water and whispered something to Kali before kissing her and running off. He was back about an hour later and swam back out to Sam with a bottle of water in his hands. They needed to keep Gabriel as hydrated as possible and Sam needed another break. 

Sam showed Dean how to massage his throat to get him to swallow and swam back over to the wall for another break. “How is he?” Kali asked softly. 

“It might be coming down a bit, but that may just be the water. Either way he’s still way too hot.”


	21. Chapter 21

After a while Dean swam over to Sam with Gabriel. “We should get him out for a while and see how he’s doing then.”

Sam bit his lip thoughtfully before nodding and leaning down to grab Gabriel under the arms and hoist him into his lap. He cradled the archangel to his chest and rested his cheek against the top of Gabriel’s head. When Dean had gone back for water he had apparently grabbed a lot more than that as Kali was now eating something and Dean handed Sam another bottle of water. Sam drank some and then gave some to Gabriel. 

After about an hour Gabriel’s temperature was still high so Sam gave him some more Tylenol and slid back into the water with him. He and Dean continued changing off. Sam had him for an hour and then Dean for half an hour which was as long as Sam would stay away. Sam was feeding him Tylenol every three hours and they did their best to keep him hydrated. 

They had gotten pretty good at telling the time by the position of the sun and it was nearly four PM when Sam noticed that Gabriel didn’t seem nearly so hot. He swam over to the wall and handed Gabriel off to Dean before climbing up and taking the archangel in his lap again. “I think he’ll be okay. It seems like his temperature is down to manageable levels, but I want to wait for him to be dry to be sure before we take him back,” Sam said relieved. 

“That’s great Sammy. Really,” Dean said just as relieved. 

Kali just reached around Dean and squeezed Sam’s shoulder and gave him a small smile which he gratefully returned. 

Once he and Gabriel were dry he could tell that, while Gabriel still had a fever, it wasn’t too high so they headed back with him. Sam got Gabriel settled back in bed and Dean said, “We can stay tonight. Just in case.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Sam didn’t really want to be alone if Gabriel’s fever spiked again and he definitely didn’t want to have to leave Gabriel alone to go get Dean. 

“Kali can sleep on the couch,” Dean said. 

“No way Dean. I’m not letting a pregnant woman sleep on the couch. She can share the bed with Gabriel while you and I take turns on the couch and keeping watch over Gabe.” It said a lot about how comfortable both brothers were with the previous relationship between their partners that they were both okay with that arrangement. 

Kali had some dinner and then climbed into bed beside Gabriel and fell asleep almost immediately. It had been a long day. Sam wanted to take the first watch with Gabriel, but when Dean got him to admit that he had been up for two hours before Dean and Kali got there at sunup, Dean forced him to the couch and told him to shut up and go to sleep. Dean would wake him in four hours. 

Dean pulled the rickety chair they had pilfered from another basement over to Gabriel’s side of the bed and turned the torch on low so he could read a book. He pressed a hand to Gabriel’s forehead every ten minutes and made sure to keep some Tylenol in him and get him to drink some water every hour. 

He let Sam sleep for five hours though before waking him. “He’s still good. A little warm, but not too bad. He’ll need some more Tylenol in an hour and I just gave him some water,” Dean updated Sam as they switched positions. “Thank you Dean,” he said sincerely as he placed a hand on Gabriel’s forehead confirming Dean’s diagnosis. 

Kali woke up as the sun was coming up, and asked how Gabriel was. “He’s doing better. His fever seems to have broken finally, but I’m going to keep him on the Tylenol for the rest of the day just to be sure.”

“Good. I’m glad,” she said softly as she went to get breakfast ready for the three of them since Dean was just waking up. 

After they ate Dean sent Sam to bed to get some more sleep, which he gratefully took, pulling Gabriel tight against him and resting his head on the archangel’s shoulder. Kali looked fondly at them for a moment before she curled up with Dean on the couch. They made sure to keep their conversation quiet so as not to disturb Sam and every thirty minutes or so one of them would get up and check Gabriel’s temperature or give him some Tylenol. 

Sam woke again around mid-morning and was glad to see that Gabriel’s temperature hadn’t gone back up, but worried that he hadn’t woken yet. Dean and Kali stayed that night too since Gabriel still hadn’t woken up and this time Sam took the first watch since he had slept in. The next morning, Dean took a nap on the couch, flat out refusing to share a bed with Gabriel so Sam and Kali rolled their eyes and just perched on opposite ends of Sam’s side of the bed and played cards. Sam reached over every few hands resting his hand on Gabriel’s forehead to reassure himself, even though the fever hadn’t come back after that first day. 

It was a few hours before they heard a croaking voice say, “That better not be strip poker you’re playing.”

“Gabe!” Sam yelled, knocking the cards over in his haste to hug his lover. Kali moved easily off the bed out of the way. Sam pressed a kiss to his lips, barely remembering to be mindful of his audience and keep it short and relatively chaste. 

“Easy Samsquatch,” Gabriel said with a chuckle. “I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck.”

“Not a train?” Sam asked teasingly remembering Gabriel’s words when he woke up after the incident. 

“Nah. Not that bad,” Gabriel said with a grin before turning to Kali, “You’re ok?” 

“I’m fine Gabriel. Thank you. But we almost lost you,” she told him. 

“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked curiously looked at all the relieved faces in the room. 

Sam was the one to explain. “You got a high fever. Too high. I was so afraid I…” Sam couldn’t continue and just buried his face in the archangel’s neck. 

Gabriel ran a soothing hand over Sam’s back and whispered, “It’s okay Samshine. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere,” as he pressed a kiss to the top of Sam’s head. 

“It was pretty scary. You were out for three days and we had to keep you in the lake for a whole day trying to get your temperature down,” Dean continued Sam’s explanation. 

Gabriel nodded in understanding as he turned back to Sam. “I’m sorry I scared you Sammy, but I’m okay now. I’m not leaving you. Not now. Not ever.”

Kali came over and placed a hand on Gabriel’s arm. “We’ll catch up with you two later,” she said softly as she and Dean headed out. Gabriel nodded gratefully at them and continued trying to soothe the hunter that was finally letting go of three days of stress and fear. 

After a while Sam started to get up. “I’m sorry. You must be starving. I’ll grab you something to eat.”

Gabriel grabbed Sam’s arm and yanked him back down. “It can wait. Just stay for a little longer,” he said as he kissed Sam deeply. “I love you Sammy,” he said tenderly. 

“I love you too Gabriel. Forever,” Sam said, nestled in Gabriel’s arms. They lay in silence for a while before Sam asked, “How are your powers?”

“Gone.”

“How long do you think it will take them to come back this time?” 

“I don’t think they will this time Samshine,” he said sadly. 

“What do you mean? Why not?” Sam asked alarmed. He knew how hard it was for Gabriel to be powerless and the idea that he might always be stuck that way was hard for Sam to grasp. 

“Draining your powers completely like that is always damaging, but doing it twice in such a short period of time? Before they are even recovered? I could be wrong, but I doubt I will get them back again.”

“I’m so sorry Gabriel,” Sam said sympathetically. 

“Don’t be. It was worth it,” Gabriel said with a smile. “I finally did something right.”

Sam grabbed Gabriel tighter and said, “You do a lot of things right Gabe.” When Gabriel gave a disbelieving snort Sam expounded. “You kept me going when I thought all hope was lost. You made me happy when all I wanted was to lay down and die. You gave me strength when I was too weak to move. God Gabriel, you are the strongest, most amazing person I’ve ever known!”

Gabriel blushed brightly and managed a chuckle. “Then I guess you just bring out the best in me Sammich.” 

Sam sighed. He would take it. “Now c’mon. You haven’t eaten in days. Let’s get some food into you,” he said standing up and holding out a hand to the archangel. 

Gabriel stood and finally seemed to notice that he was only in his boxers and he looked down and then looked back up at Sam and grinned, “Did you have your wicked way with me while I was out?” he asked with a laugh. 

Sam rolled his eyes. “We could hardly chuck you in the lake fully clothed,” he explained. 

Gabriel, still laughing, gave a shrug. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been swimming with my clothes on,” he said jokingly as he hobbled stiffly over to the couch and gratefully accepted the offered food.


	22. Chapter 22

Gabriel recovered quickly. He had mostly just needed to work the stiffness out of his muscles and a trip to the store did that just fine. It was a few days later when Dean and Kali popped by around mid-morning and Dean mentioned something that no one had thought of yet. “Has anyone thought about what to do for winter?” It was mid-August already so winter was coming up fast. 

Sam’s eyes got wide. “Shit!” and Gabriel looked at him with the same alarmed expression. 

Kali, unfamiliar with the weather patterns in this part of the world asked what winter would be like here. “Cold,” Sam said. “Very cold. Lots of snow and ice. The lake will freeze over.”

Kali shivered at the thought. “So what are we going to do?”

They all sat down to brainstorm. “Well walking south isn’t an option,” Dean pointed out. “Even if Kali were in any condition to make that trip, the farther south we get the fewer basements there will be which will put us in tents and be almost as bad as staying here.”

“Fire would work for heating, but we can’t exactly make fires inside and outside we would be subject to the weather,” Gabriel contributed. 

“Maybe we could build fireplaces?” Dean asked. 

“How would we do that?” Sam asked thoughtfully. 

“How hard can it be. Bust a hole in the wall, brick the edges, and stick a pipe through the ceiling,” Dean said with a shrug. 

“Oh yeah genius, and how are we going to bust a hole in the wall? Just kick it in?” Sam figured it couldn’t be too hard to find intact bricks and pipes in all the rubble for the rest. 

“There’s gotta be a hardware store around here. Sledgehammers are heavy and bulky enough that I’m sure some of them have survived,” Dean countered. 

“Ok sounds like we are getting somewhere,” Gabriel chimed in before they could start to argue. “We’ll try that. We also need to think about food and water. We need to stock up as much as we can so we don’t end up digging through snow and ice trying to find some. We can use nearby basements for overflow.”

“Ok how about this,” Sam suggested. “Dean and I can go hunt for a hardware store and Gabriel and Kali can start looking around the nearby basements and taking inventory and making room so we know how much we need. We can regroup this evening to refine our plan.”

When they met back up about an hour before the sun would start to set they all had progress to report. Sam started. “Ok so we found some sledgehammers and get also got lucky and found a few cans of caulk and a mostly working caulk gun. Would have preferred concrete, but it’s better than nothing. We also dug up a few pipes that should be good enough for our purposes.”

Kali reported their progress. “It seems that many people around here feel the urge to store food. Without any more supplies we have enough for about two months in the eight basements we searched. Two to either side of each of our houses.”

“Say a month and a half,” Gabriel corrected. “You’ll be eating more as time goes on,” he told Kali. 

“Ok so how about this?” Dean suggested. “In the mornings we take a few trips to the store and bring back supplies and in the afternoons we will work on the fireplaces. We’ll start with yours since this place is bigger so we can all fit if we don’t get them both finished in time.”

“I’m going on these supply runs too,” Kali said firmly. “I’m not leaving all the work to you.”

Dean opened his mouth to argue, but Gabriel beat him to the punch. “You can take care of clothes, blankets and batteries. Leave the heavy stuff to us,” he said in a tone that brokered no argument. He knew that she needed to feel useful and now that he had healed her from everything that happened in the beginning of her pregnancy it would be perfectly safe. 

She nodded tersely. She hated being treated like she was fragile, but she too didn’t want to take any chances. Dean looked annoyed, but kept his mouth shut. “Ok so meet back here at first light?” Dean asked. 

When the others nodded, he and Kali got up and headed home before it started getting dark. There was usually enough light from the stars and moon to see by, but they still preferred to be in before dark when they could. 

They next morning they headed for the store with four empty packs. Kali headed for the clothes while the other three headed for the food and water. They split it up so that Gabriel was getting water, Dean food, and Sam milk and food. Sam and Dean insisted on at least a seven-month supply knowing that it as possible for winter to last as long as six months and wanting to have some breathing room. They were getting better at this and most of the larger debris had already been cleared from the area so it was only an hour before they met back up with full packs and headed back. This trip would be for Sam and Gabriel’s place and Kali got clothes in their sizes. She had remembered Gabriel’s sizes of course, but had to ask for Sam’s. 

Once they got unloaded they headed back for another trip. This time for Dean and Kali. They managed to make three trips before lunchtime, Kali taking the opportunity to snack while they were unloading after each trip. They all sat down for a quick lunch before the guys started on the fireplace. It spoke a lot for Kali’s exhaustion that she managed to doze off with all the banging as they knocked out the wall. By the time she woke, all three men were sweaty and shirtless and she took a moment to admire the view. As much as she loved Dean, she had to admit that all three of them were gorgeous. Sam with his rippling muscles and chisled abs and Gabriel with his lean, wiry muscles that rolled with his movements. 

Dean glanced over like he had been every so often and saw her watching them and grinned. “Morning beautiful,” he said cheerily. 

She blushed a little, having been caught staring at the three men, only one of which was hers, but quickly recovered. “So what can I do?”

Sam and Dean turned to Gabriel, since he knew more about what was safe for her to do than they did. He thought for a minute before asking her, “Do you think you could work on that stretcher that Deano made? Maybe make it a little sturdier and fasten something to the sides to give it some depth. It would help for carrying the bricks back here.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she said heading for the door. 

“Don’t go too far and yell if you need anything,” Dean called after her and she waved a hand back in acknowledgment. “Thanks Gabe,” he said. “For finding her light work to do.”

“I know how much she hates feeling useless,” Gabriel said by way of explanation as they got back to work. Sam and Dean were hammering at the wall while Gabriel was grabbing the pieces that were broken off and hauling them outside. There was really only room for two, if that, to swing at the wall and Sam and Dean had more power behind their swings. 

It wasn’t too much longer before they hit dirt and smacked their heads for not thinking of that. They were in a basement for crying out loud. Thankfully they had scavenged shovels a long time ago thinking they might come in handy, but when Gabriel made his next trip up he went over to check on Kali’s progress. It didn’t look like the sturdiest thing they could find, but it would work. It would definitely be easier to move than one of the battered wheelbarrows they had always passed on that had no wheels. 

The four of them split up to look for something to put in the bottom that wouldn’t let the dirt escape and finally found a piece of sheet metal roughly the right size. There were a few gaps that they filled with smaller pieces. It would probably leak some, but it would be good enough and they brought it downstairs. 

By that point it was dinner time though so they sat down to eat and then Dean and Kali headed home as the sun started to set. The next day was essentially a repeat of the day before. Three trips to the store followed by work on the fireplace. Since they were using shovels now instead of sledgehammers there was more room for all three of them to work. Once their makeshift bucket was full they carried it outside and dumped it. By the end of the night they had a hole about four feet in each direction and pronounced it good enough. 

The next day after their three store trips, they took to finding and hauling back bricks. They ley Kali help look and load the cart after her nap since they were going for the small red ones that weren’t actually heavy, but obviously she didn’t get to carry the full cart or do any of the bricklaying though that was more due to lack of space. In fact, while Sam and Dean lay the bricks Gabriel and Kali started on the next load. It seemed to be working pretty well too as one of the boys would show up every time it started to get full to help him get it back. It took three days to get that part finished to everyone’s standards. It wasn’t pretty, but it would do the job without caving in and that was the important part. 

The next day they set to laying the exhaust pipe which was about six inches in diameter and Gabriel pointed out something that none of them had thought about. “How are we going to keep the snow and ice out of the pipe?” 

“Or off our doors for that matter,” Sam added as it dawned on him. 

They all thought for a minute before Dean said, “Ok the pipe is easy. We can try to find an elbow joint or something to attach so that it’s going to the side instead of straight up. We might still get a little due to wind, but not enough to cause problems. We’ll worry about the doors after we get the fireplaces set up so try to think of something between now and then.” They had made sure the pipe was at least five feet above the ground so there was less chance of it being covered by snow. Of course since the pipe was metal it would stay hot enough to keep any snow around it melted anyway, but there was no use in being careless. 

The next day after their three trips for supplies and lunch they all headed to the hardware store to look for elbow joints. They knew that looking for something so specific in the right size was not going to be easy. After explaining to Kali and Gabriel what they were looking for and telling them to only look for metal, not plastic, they split up and began searching. It took almost two hours before Gabriel yelled, “I think I got something!” and held up a metal elbow joint. 

Dean came over and scrutinized it. “It might be a little bit big, but we can use a hammer and bang it down to make it fit. Nice work Gabe,” he said as he reached down to grab a second one for his own fireplace when they got that far. By the time they got back and got the piece fitted to the pipe it was too late to start on anything else so they just spent the next hour relaxing and hanging out before dinner and then they split up for the night. 

The next day they started on Dean and Kali’s fireplace and that one took a little less than a week as they were more practiced at it and knew what to do and what not to do.


	23. Chapter 23

Fireplaces done, they then set to gathering firewood. There was more than enough around to burn thankfully. Since the basements to the sides of them were being used for food water and clothing, they moved the wood to the basements across the street, taking a break from wood collecting when Sam had an idea to keep the snow from blocking their doors. They used sheet metal to build makeshift huts over their doors, caulking bricks up a few feet high to keep them from being knocked over. Those took about a day each, being very simple structures, and they were back to gathering supplies in the morning and gathering wood in the afternoons. 

It was just in time too, as the nights had been steadily getting colder and the fireplaces definitely helped. By the time the first snow started to fall in mid-October they were pretty well set with all the firewood stashed in the basements of the row of houses between them so both had easy access to it. Both couples had at least four extra blankets, warm clothes, including gloves and hats, and they had even stocked up on winter clothes and supplies for the baby, figuring she was due sometime around February. They had pretty much cleaned out all of the nearby stores though and unless someone got their powers back, they were going to have to move on after winter was over. 

They spent most days at Sam and Gabriel’s. Kali was showing now and the baby had just started kicking so that was a great source of joy for them. Of course, that prompted a conversation that sucked all the joy out of the room. Dean was starting to get really nervous about being a father and since neither he nor Kali had any children they were way out of their depth so Dean asked Gabriel, “So Kali says you have kids?”

Sam sucked in a sharp breath and looked at Gabriel who closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again, and if Sam hadn’t known him so well he would never have been able to see the pain in them. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?” Sam asked.

“I thought you knew,” Gabriel said matter-of-factly. “You know all the lore about me.”

“I don’t…I didn’t…” Sam was beyond flustered. “All that time I was going on about Dean, you had kids out there somewhere?” Sam asked with visible pain in his eyes as he placed a hand over Gabriel’s. 

“No,” Gabriel said sadly. “If they were alive they would have found me. I tried praying to them as soon as I woke up that day.”

Dean realized he had stepped on a land mine and decided his questions could wait as he and Kali bundled up and headed home, Dean mouthing ‘sorry’ to Gabriel and both of them placing a comforting hand on his shoulder before they left. 

Once they were alone, Sam moved his hand up to Gabriel’s cheek and leaned his forehead against the archangel’s. “I feel terrible that I was going on and on about my brother when you were mourning the loss of your children,” he said softly. 

“You shouldn’t feel bad Sammy. My pain shouldn’t in any way invalidate your own.”

“Why didn’t you tell me what you were going through?” Sam asked. 

“What purpose would it have served other to drain away the little bit of happiness and comfort we had?” 

“I could have been there for you. Like you were there for me.”

Gabriel gave a sad smile and pressed his lips lightly to the hunter’s. “You were there for me, Samshine.”

“I could’ve done more.”

“You saved me Sam. You gave me a reason to keep going. Something to live for. You couldn’t have done more than that,” Gabriel said earnestly. 

Sam knew that there was no point in continuing that vein of conversation so just pulled the archangel close and pulled the blanket up over them tightly and asked, “Do you want to tell me about them?”

Gabriel was leaning with his back against Sam’s chest and his head on the hunter’s shoulder, while Sam’s arms were wrapped around his chest and stomach and his cheek was resting on top of the archangel’s head. The fire was crackling in front of them and Gabriel nodded. “There were four of them. Fenrir was the oldest, then Jormugandr, then my baby girl Hella, and finally Slepnir…” He spent the rest of the evening talking about his kids. What they were like growing up, funny stories, the differences in their personalities, all of it as Sam listened intently, laughing at the appropriate times, asking questions, and just letting Gabriel talk. 

They ended up falling asleep like that on the couch and when they woke as the fire was dying down a few hours later, Sam threw some more wood on the fire and got it going again before the two of them fell into bed and Sam again pulled the archangel tightly against him. “I love you Gabriel,” he whispered into the silence and Gabriel snuggled closer to him and returned the sentiment as they fell back asleep. 

Sam woke first the next morning and when he felt Gabriel begin to stir he kissed him slowly and deeply, before nuzzling his face into the archangel’s neck with soft kisses and asking, “How are you?”

“I’m okay Sammy. Thanks, but if you keep that up I won’t be responsible for my actions,” he finished playfully, as Sam kept kissing his neck. 

At Gabriel’s words he began kissing more insistently and he rolled his hips forward so that Gabriel could feel his erection as he said, “Good.” Gabriel moaned and pressed his ass back tighter against the hunter as Sam’s hands slid up under his shirt, firmly kneading his chest and stomach. “Mmm…so perfect,” Sam murmured against Gabriel’s neck as he gave a gentle bite to the soft skin. Sam knew they didn’t have long before they would have to get up and stoke the fire, but he was determined to show his angel how much he loved him in the little time they had. 

He was glad they had switched to sweatpants most of the time as he slid his down off his hips before doing the same for Gabriel’s and just rocked his hips so that his hard cock was rubbing between Gabriel’s ass cheeks. “Love you so much…my wonderful Gabriel.”

“I love you too Sammy, but if you don’t stop being such an ass tease and get in me already I’m taking over,” he said with a breathless growl. 

Sam reached over to the bedside table for the lube and slicked himself up generously, before sliding slowly into Gabriel, hands still moving over his chest and stomach as they both moaned. They kept a slow steady rhythm for a minute before Gabriel breathed out, “Shit Sammy…Fuck me…hard…”

Gabriel didn’t often want to be dominated, but when he did, Sam gladly complied so Sam flipped him onto his stomach before getting his knees under him. This was one way their personalities were vastly different. When Sam was upset he wanted to be loved, but when Gabriel was upset he wanted to be punished. Their pants were to their knees and Sam moved one hand around, under Gabriel’s shirt, to pinch Gabriel’s nipples hard as the other tangled in his hair and pulled his head back off the pillow as Sam leaned down and bit his neck harshly. Sam pulled almost all the way out, not releasing Gabriel’s hair and trailing more sharp bites across his neck and Gabriel gave a needy whimper. “Beg for me Gabe,” Sam growled in his ear as he bit the earlobe. 

“Fuck Sammy…please…please fuck me…need your cock…” Gabriel whined desperately. 

Sam slammed forward hard, angling to hit the archangel’s prostate as he licked up the side of Gabriel’s ear and growled, “Good boy.”

He then switched hands so that his other hand was in Gabriel’s hair and he turned attention to the archangel’s other nipple so that he could bite the other side of Gabriel’s neck as he pounded furiously into the keening archangel. “Shit Sammy…so good…more…fuck…” Gabriel cried out as Sam set a brutal pace. “To-touch me….Sammy…please…need…” Gabriel’s words were cut off as Sam roughly grabbed Gabriel’s weeping dick, not missing a beat in his hard, fast, pace and jerked roughly. 

Sam was rapidly coming undone and wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer so he bit Gabriel’s other earlobe and growled, “Cum for me Gabriel.” That was all it took to push the archangel over the edge as Sam leaned down and pressed one more hard bite to Gabriel’s neck as he was pulled over the edge too. 

Sam knew what came after these times too though so as he came down from his high he had softened to trailing lips and tongue over Gabriel’s abused neck before flipping him over and caressing every inch of the archangel he could reach as Gabriel trembled and tears leaked from his eyes, arms wrapped tightly around the hunter. Sam resumed what he had been trying to do from the beginning as he pressed soft loving kisses over Gabriel’s neck and face, before lifting his shirt and doing the same to Gabriel’s chest and stomach while murmuring words of love and praise and comfort as Gabriel finally allowed himself to fall apart and mourn the loss of his children. 

Once Gabriel had stopped shaking and his tears had slowed to a crawl Sam moved up to capture the archangel’s lips in a soft, sweet kiss as he used his thumbs to dry Gabriel’s tears. “I love you so much Gabe,” he whispered sincerely. 

“I love you, my sweet Sammy. Thank you.”


	24. Chapter 24

Dean and Kali had waited until after lunch to come over to give the couple some alone time after Dean had stuck his foot in his mouth yesterday. Since they were keeping the doors closed now to the cold they were actually able to knock instead of just calling out from the top of the stairs. They came down to find Sam and Gabriel curled up under a blanket in front of the fire. Dean sat down next to him pulling Kali into his lap and grabbed the other blanket they kept there. Dean put a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder comfortingly, saying, “I’m sorry about your kids Gabe. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Gabriel reached a hand up and squeezed the hunter’s wrist in gratitude before saying, “Thanks, but it’s okay. I’m sure you had a reason,” he said waiting for Dean to continue the question that had been cut off yesterday. 

“Well it’s just…neither Kali or I have any experience with babies, or kids even, and we have no idea what to do about…well…anything.”

“I’d be happy to help Deano. Really. In fact, I was always going to suggest all of us staying together for a bit after the baby was born so that I could.”

That wasn’t news to Sam as they had talked about it, but Gabriel didn’t want to say anything to the others unless they asked so it wouldn’t seem like he was trying to imply that they wouldn’t be good parents. Kali in particular was pretty sensitive these days, and setting Kali off usually got you a good dose of Dean’s temper so it was safest to let them bring it up. Thankfully, they looked more grateful than offended. “Thank you Gabriel,” Kali said sincerely, tears welling up in her eyes. 

“Of course sweetie,” Gabriel said taking her hand. “The first one is always difficult, not to mention terrifying,” he said with a smile. He didn’t have to say how much more terrifying it was in this situation. Even Gabriel wasn’t prepared for this. Not at all. But he pretended to be and put on a good show for Dean and Kali. Only Sam knew how scared he really was. Even in the old world babies were fragile, but now? With no hospitals or doctors or sterile surroundings and don’t even get him started on when the baby starts crawling and walking with all this debris everywhere. Let’s just say he would feel a lot better if he had his powers or even if Kali did. 

Kali had been worried that maybe she wouldn’t be getting her powers back at all since they hadn’t started coming back after Gabriel’s had, but Gabriel reasoned that it could be because of the baby and talked her into waiting until after the baby was born to lose hope for them. 

It was mid-December when the next crisis hit. Well it wasn’t exactly a crisis, but for Gabriel it was. They heard a crash and startled awake. Sam, still having his hunter reflexes ran for the door to find that it was blocked. Their makeshift hut must have fallen over. He turned to find Gabriel standing behind him and could see the terror in his eyes. Sam quickly remembered his fear of being trapped and grabbed the archangel in his arms and led him to the couch before sitting down and pulling Gabriel into his lap. “It’ll be okay Gabe. I promise. Dean will dig us out. We have enough food and water for two weeks and enough firewood for three days. It won’t take him nearly that long to get us out,” he explained running his hands soothingly over the trembling archangel’s back as Gabriel clung to him like a lifeline. “I’ve got you. I’m here. Everything will be alright,” he whispered. 

He kept that up as a mantra until he realized that Gabriel had fallen back into a fitful sleep. It was probably the middle of the night after all. Sam could only hope he was telling Gabriel the truth and that Dean wasn’t in the same situation. Sam didn’t want to risk disturbing Gabriel so just reached a hand over to grab the blanket to pull over them and eventually fell back to sleep himself. 

“Sammy,” Gabriel’s terrified whimper pulled him from sleep and the events of the night rushed back. He knew that the archangel was in bad shape if he actually woke him up. Gabriel always waited for him to wake up on his own. 

His hands immediately started rubbing soothing circles on the archangel’s back as he said, “I’m here Gabe. I’ve got you. You’re okay.”

“Sorry I’m such a baby,” Gabriel muttered burying his face in the hunter’s chest. 

“Hush Gabe. You’re not a baby. Everybody’s scared of something. You didn’t call me a baby when I cried all over you after you were sick did you?” Sam pointed out gently and felt the archangel shake his head. “Did you call Dean a baby when he was afraid of Kali being pregnant?” He felt another shake. “Did you call Kali a baby when she was afraid of not getting her powers back?” Another shake. “Then why would you call yourself a baby when you get scared?” Shrug. “You don’t have to be the strong one all the time Gabriel. You can let us take care of you sometimes too.” He finally felt a nod and he smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of the archangel’s head. 

Sam decided to try to distract Gabriel. “Tell me a story?” he asked. 

“What kind of story?” Gabriel asked, sound muffled by Sam’s chest. 

“You’ve been around since before time began. You must have some great stories. Tell me some of them.” So Gabriel did. He told stories about historical figures that Sam would know of, but the real stories of things that happened behind closed doors or were considered too inconsequential or embarrassing to be recorded for future generations like how many times Michelangelo had fallen from his harness while painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and how many of those times had been because Gabriel snapped his fingers. He complained that Michelangelo made him look like a girl. 

He didn’t move from Sam’s lap but he did relax his grip slightly as he got more animated in his storytelling. It was about four hours later when they heard scraping overhead and when Dean finally got the door open he saw his brother and Gabriel standing on the stairs. “I took Kali home while I got you guys out. I’ll go get her…” he started to say before Gabriel rushed past him. 

“I’ll go!” he called back. 

Sam laughed and shook his head. “Come on in and get warm and dry,” he said heading back downstairs followed by Dean.

“What’s his deal?” Dean asked curiously. 

“He’s a little claustrophobic and the hut fell down around midnight so it’s been a long twelve hours,” Sam explained. 

Kali was sporting a pretty large baby bump by now and Gabriel helped her down the stairs lingering on the bottom step before saying, “I’m gonna go take a walk.”

Sam glanced over to Dean who nodded imperceptibly at him so Sam said, “I’ll come with you. We’ll be back in a little while.” Their time could be better utilized fixing the hut, but Sam knew that Gabriel didn’t want any reminders right then so he didn’t say a word and just grabbed both his and Gabriel’s coats, gloves, and hats. The archangel had run out in just his sweatpants and sweatshirt. He had thankfully thought to slide his boots on at least. Sam also didn’t say a word about the fact that Gabriel waited until they were outside to put his extra clothing on and just threaded his fingers with his lover’s as they headed down the street in what could only be termed a romantic walk. They had become so used to the devastation around them that they barely even noticed it anymore. 

It was an hour later before they circled back to their house and sat down for lunch with Dean and Kali. “You good?” Dean asked Gabriel with a raised eyebrow and Gabriel nodded. 

“Too bad we were never able to find a working set of walkie talkies or anything,” Sam said now realizing how much they would have come in handy. 

“No kidding,” Dean replied. And boy had they looked, but everything they found had been all busted up.

After they had finished eating interspersed with light conversation Kali yawned. “Why don’t you get some rest while we go fix the roof,” Gabriel suggested helping Kali over to their bed. It didn’t take too long to get it fixed, but they increased the angle of the top this time, thinking that maybe too much snow had accumulated on top. “We should go double check and make sure yours is secure too Deano or tomorrow we might be digging you out,” Gabriel said with a laugh and they agreed. Dean’s was fine, but they increased the angle on the top anyway just to be safe. 

Kali was stirring awake when they got back and they just relaxed the rest of the evening, though Gabriel did fidget for a little while after they closed the doors.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tissue warning. have them ready. you'll need them.

Sam briefly considered suggesting doing something to mark Christmas, but then remembered that not only was Kali a Hindu goddess and Gabriel had posed as a Norse god for millennia, but that the Christian god had abandoned them, so quickly put that idea out of his mind so Christmas passed like any other day. 

They had begun making plans for when Kali had the baby. Gabriel explained that labor averaged around twelve hours for a first child and could conceivably go much longer and that it was beneficial to walk around in the early stages of labor so if Dean and Kali were at home when it happened they were to come to Gabriel and Sam’s place where they had everything ready, along with all the supplies a newborn had to have. Gabriel had never used the disposable diapers that they had found intact, but had to admit that they would be far more convenient that trying to wash cloth diapers. At least during the winter when the lake was frozen over. He was sure that between the four of them they could figure them out. 

They had also decided that while she was in labor, or after the baby was born if labor did happen to go quickly, Sam and Dean would go cart the top mattress from Dean and Kali’s place to Sam and Gabriel’s for the time being allowing Dean and Kali to use the full bed and Sam and Gabriel would sleep on the mattress on the floor until the parents felt comfortable going home with the baby. 

It was nearing the end of January when Sam and Gabriel were startled awake by the sound of the outside door slamming open. Given the cold weather they always slept fully clothed thankfully and they had a good idea of why the door was opening so they scrambled out of bed and had the bedding stripped down and were in the process of laying out the plastic to protect the mattress by the time Dean and Kali reached the bottom of the stairs. As soon as the plastic was in place Gabriel ran over to Kali and started peppering her with questions about how far apart her contractions were, how bad the pain was, and when it started. 

Sam opened one of the new sets of sheets they had set aside for this purpose and turned away while Kali undressed her lower half and settled the sheet over it while Gabriel grabbed some hand sanitizer. It had been a long time since any of them had been uncomfortable remembering the past relationship between the two, but seeing Gabriel poke around between Kali’s legs brought it back to the front of both Sam and Dean’s minds. It wasn’t jealousy or insecurity of course. Not in this. Just uncomfortable. 

“She’s got a long way to go still. It’s gonna be a while,” Gabriel told the hunters so they headed out to get the mattress. Dean definitely wanted to be there once her labor started advancing so it was best to get it out of the way now, despite the fact that it was still dark out. Luckily it was a full moon so there was enough light to see by. 

Dean made a comment about a goddess having a baby on the full moon to which Sam just pointed out, with a roll of his eyes, that Kali wasn’t a moon goddess. Once they got back they moved the couch so that it was long ways in the center of the room and placed the other mattress on the other side of it. That way the couples had some measure of privacy, but were still in the same room to help with the baby. 

That done, Dean went to Kali’s side as Gabriel had Sam get out a warm outfit, one of the small blankets they had found, and a diaper for the baby and put them on top of the dresser behind Gabriel. It had been roughly two in the morning when Dean and Kali had arrived and it was a very long remainder of the night. Gabriel checked her progress every half hour and Sam had been sent out to chip some ice from outside for Kali. Dean was too worked up to even think about eating breakfast, but Sam and Gabriel managed, one with far more grace and dignity than the other. 

As nervous as Gabriel was about delivering this baby in these conditions, he didn’t show even a hint of it. They had done all they could to make it as safe as possible so whatever happened was out of his hands. Not that it would make it any easier but at least he would know that he’d done his best. Dean kept pestering Gabriel with questions like, “Should it be hurting her this much? Why is it taking so long? Are you sure everything is okay?”

Finally, Gabriel just looked at him calmly and said, “I’ve delivered more than my fair share of babies over the millennia Deano. I know what I’m doing. Just relax. If there’s something to be worried about I’ll let you know.”

It was mid-morning before she was fully dialated and Gabriel, after lathering up with hand sanitizer for what seemed like the hundredth time settled between her legs and said, “Here we go.” Dean was holding Kali’s hand, or, more accurately, Kali was trying to crush Dean’s hand and Sam just stood back a bit ready to help Gabriel with anything he asked for. 

It was about half an hour later when Gabriel said, “Get ready Sammy,” so Sam walked over to the dresser and was ready to hand things to Gabriel as he asked for them. Soon enough the sound of a baby’s cries filled the room and Gabriel said proudly, “It’s a girl!” before holding out his hand and saying “clamp,” which they had improvised with a folder clip, followed by “scissors,” and then “towel,” and finally “blanket.” 

Once she was clean and wrapped Gabriel lifted her and pressed a kiss to her forehead saying, “Turbs congamphlgh ol dalagare elasa iaid malprigi od moz adagita insi a congamphlgh od page a goaanu,” and handing her to Kali who had tears in her eyes, making sure that she was holding her correctly and supporting her head. 

“That was beautiful Gabriel. Thank you,” she whispered in awe as she turned to the baby and said, “She’s beautiful.”

“What did you say?” Sam asked curiously. Judging by Kali’s reaction it had to have been something. 

“Roughly translated I said, ‘beautiful soul, I grant you long life and happiness to walk with courage and peace throughout creation.’ It’s an old Enochian blessing.”

Sam and Dean both had tears in their eyes at that too and Sam stepped up behind Gabriel and wrapped his arms around the archangel’s waist, leaning down to press a kiss to Gabriel’s neck, before putting his chin on his shoulder and said, “She’s right. That was beautiful.” 

Gabriel turned with a smile to kiss the hunter quickly before he stepped away to go wash his hands in the water bucket they had taken to keeping inside for such things ever since the snow started staying on the ground and could be collected easily. “What will you name her?” Gabriel asked curiously. 

Dean and Kali shared a conspiratorial smile before Kali said, “Her first name will be Amrithadi. It means precious beginning in Hindi.”

“We thought it was appropriate as the first child born to the new world,” Dean said with a smile before adding, “Her middle name will be Gabrielle.”

Sam grinned widely and Gabriel got a rather shocked look on his face before saying, “You don’t have to…”

Dean rolled his eyes and cut him off, “You saved her life and Kali’s, almost losing your own in the process, you delivered her, you’re helping us learn how to take care of her,” Dean said. 

“Not to mention all the little things you did all along to keep us healthy and comfortable, under some very difficult circumstances,” Kali added. 

“It really is the least we could do to thank you,” Dean finished and tore himself away from his new family long enough to give Gabriel a warm hug in thanks. 

When he stepped back Gabriel had a few tears running down his face. “Th-thank you guys. I’m…I’m honored.”

Sam took his place behind his lover again wrapping his arms around Gabriel and told the couple softly, “I think it’s perfect.” Then he dipped his head down and whispered so that only the archangel could hear him, “See how far you are from a screw-up?”

Gabriel just brought his arms up and placed over Sam’s and turned his head slightly to rest his forehead against the hunter’s neck and nodded. He finally felt worthy and he had done it all without his powers.


	26. Chapter 26

Once Gabriel had his emotions under control he went over to the dresser and picked up the diaper looking at it curiously. He turned it over in his hands a few times and then tentatively pulled it apart at the obvious seam. He turned it every which way, brow furrowing even more with each passing second. Dean had glanced up and noticed and he started laughing. “Dude, I thought you knew babies.”

“I do!” Gabriel protested. “But I’ve never used one of these new-fangled contraptions before!”

Dean held up his hands when Gabriel looked hopefully at him. “Don’t look at me. I don’t have a clue.”

Sam rolled his eyes and stepped up next to Gabriel. “Let me see it,” and the two of them proceeded to turn it around and poke and prod at it while having a silent conversation with their facial expressions. 

After about five minutes, Gabriel finally said, “Ok I think I have this thing figured out now.” He held out his hands to Kali, “May I?”

“Of course,” she said with a smile as Gabriel reached down and plucked the baby from her arms. 

He unwrapped the blanket and, after a few false starts, finally got the diaper on correctly. “Eureka!” He wrapped her back up and handed her back to Kali. They would worry about dressing her in a little while. It was plenty warm enough with the fire going that she would be fine in the blanket for the time being and the family needed to bond. 

When she started crying Dean and Kali both looked helplessly at Gabriel who chuckled at their expressions and said, “I think she’s hungry.” Kali had a good idea of how this part worked and pulled up her shirt for Amrithadi to latch on. “Give her about ten minutes and then burp her,” he mimed the way to burp her over the shoulder. “Then switch her to the other side.” He paused for a moment and then said, “Sam and I can go take a walk and give you guys some time alone.”

“Don’t go too far?” Dean asked 

“Of course not,” Gabriel replied to which Dean nodded gratefully. 

 

Once they were all bundled up Sam and Gabriel headed outside. They didn’t get very far though before Sam grabbed Gabriel and spun him around pressing his back against a standing beam and pressing his lips against the archangel’s. His tongue flicked out and Gabriel gratefully opened for him wrapping his arms around the hunter’s neck as their lips and tongues danced together. When they broke for air Sam pressed his forehead against Gabriel’s and said breathlessly, “Just when I think I can’t possibly love you any more you go and do something that just blows me away. You’re amazing Gabriel.”

Gabriel blushed and looked away embarrassed, but Sam put a hand on his chin and pulled him back to look him in the eye. “Uh-uh. You’re not allowed to do that anymore.”

“Do what?” Gabriel asked. 

“Look away and brush off compliments. You’re going to learn to accept them because you are amazing,” he brushed his lips against the archangels, “and gorgeous,” another brush of the lips, “and strong”, and another, “and sweet,” and again, “and perfect.” This time when his lips brushed against the archangel’s, Gabriel held him there and deepened the kiss again. When they broke apart again, Sam just had one more thing he wanted to say, “and mine.”

“Always my Samshine,” Gabriel said blissfully. 

As Sam was leaning in for another kiss he heard Dean’s voice, “Gabriel! Ami’s throwing up!”

Gabriel chuckled and pushed off from the beam as Sam stepped back worriedly. He was reasonably certain it was just spit-up but he would check just to be safe. It was easy to forget just how clueless this group really was about babies. After confirming that it was just spit-up and assuring them that it was completely normal and nothing to be concerned about, Kali continued feeding her. “Ami?” (Pronounced Ah-mi) he asked confirming the nickname. 

Dean shrugged. “Amrithadi is a bit of a mouthful.”

“I like it,” Gabriel said and Sam nodded in approval as well. Gabriel could tell by how tense Dean was that he would prefer if they stick around so Gabriel shucked out of his coat and hat. His gloves had already been removed to check on the baby and Sam did the same and they plopped down on the couch, Sam pulling the archangel against him. By the time Ami was finished feeding and burped Kali was drifting off to sleep. 

Dean looked hopefully between Gabriel and the baby and Gabriel rolled his eyes and got up, gently taking the baby from Kali and motioned for Dean to follow him. They sat down on the couch and Gabriel coached Dean on how to properly hold her leaning back into Sam once Ami was nestled contentedly in Dean’s arms, though Dean was as stiff and still as a statue and looked terrified. Gabriel laughed, “Just relax and sit back Dean. You won’t break her.” 

Dean sat back as he was told but took a little while to completely relax. A couple hours later Ami woke up crying and Dean sat straight up looking around wild-eyed for help. “She’s just hungry again. Take her to Kali,” Gabriel urged him comfortingly from where he was dozing lightly against Sam. 

Kali was pushing herself to a sitting position again and held her arms out when Dean approached and placed Ami very gingerly into Kali’s arms before he sat down with a proud look on his face, like carrying something ten feet without dropping it was his greatest achievement. Gabriel snorted in amusement and closed his eyes again. 

They had apparently managed the feeding and burping without difficulty because the next thing Gabriel knew, Dean was gently shaking his shoulder. He peeked an eye open and Dean said apologetically, “Sorry Gabe, but I think she needs a change and I didn’t really see what you did with the diaper last time.”

Gabriel waved off his apology though and got up stretching. “It’s no problem Deano. That’s what I’m here for.” He showed them how to clean her up and change her and then get her dressed, before he turned back to the couch to see Sam watching him with so much love in his eyes that it took the archangel aback for a moment. He grinned at the hunter and found himself wishing he hadn’t had to give up his powers so that they could have a baby of their own. 

Now that Kali was awake and not quite so exhausted, Sam got up and opened some cans for all of them to have dinner, it being about that time. They didn’t have a crib or anything to put her in so Gabriel took her and held her in one arm while he balanced his can on his knee and ate with his free hand. “How are you so good at that?” Sam asked in awe. 

Gabriel laughed. “Lots and lots of practice. You guys will get the hang of it too. I’m just trying not to push too much at you in one day.”

“Yes. Thank you for that,” Kali said appreciatively. She was feeling more than a little overwhelmed at the moment already. Most people had some experience with babies before having one, or barring that at least had television and movies to understand the basics from. Then there were the classes that expectant parents take, but of course they had none of that and even Sam and Dean, the tv watchers of the group had never really gravitated towards anything with babies so they were all beyond lost. 

Once Kali was finished eating she asked for the baby back and Gabriel cheerfully handed her over before returning to finish his own meal. It was a little slower to eat with a baby after all. After he finished eating Gabriel looked around thoughtfully before going over to the dresser and emptying one of his drawers before grabbing one of his sweaters and spreading it out in the bottom and then folding another clean sheet on top of it. He placed it against the wall safely away from the fireplace, but still close enough to get plenty of warmth when she didn’t have body heat to feed off of. “And we have a place for her to sleep,” he announced proudly. 

Dean looked dubiously at the drawer, but he trusted Gabriel so he just shrugged and didn’t voice his concerns. It wasn’t long before Kali was yawning again. “Why am I so tired?” she asked. 

“You just pushed a human being out of your body. You’re gonna be tired for a while,” Gabriel pointed out. “Plus nursing takes a toll on the body too and she will be up at least every few hours to eat for the next few months so get used to being tired.” Kali looked a little annoyed at that so Gabriel added, “Hey we will all help as much as we can, but unfortunately none of us have the right equipment to feed her,” he said with a laugh. 

As if on cue Ami woke hungry again and after feeding her Kali went back to sleep as Dean, coached by Gabriel and watched closely by Sam, changed his first diaper. Dean was getting more comfortable holding her and carrying her around so he took her back to the couch before looking at Sam. “You want to hold her? You haven’t gotten to yet.”

Sam had been watching everything carefully so was able to make the transfer with no problems and he leaned back comfortably with her. He ran a finger over her forehead and down her face saying, “Hi Ami. I’m your uncle Sammy.” Gabriel watched Sam with the baby and felt a longing that he hadn’t felt in a very long time as a lump formed in his throat. He sat gently next to the hunter putting his arm around him and his head on his shoulder while he reached out to tickle her stomach and she caught hold of a finger. Gabriel gave a little chuckle and he heard Sam say, “And that’s your uncle Gabe.”

Seeing that his daughter was in good hands and he was exhausted since he hadn’t gotten a nap like they did after being up most of the night he said, “Will you guys be okay if I crash?”

“Sure Dean. We got her,” Sam said not looking up.


	27. Chapter 27

“You are such a good little baby. Yes, you are,” Gabriel cooed at her as she watched them interestedly. 

“She really is, isn’t she,” Sam said in awe of the precious thing in his arms. “I always thought babies cried more.”

“Not always, but usually yeah,” Gabriel said waggling his fingers in front of her face as she swung her arms around jerkily trying to grab them. He only made her wait a moment before he put a finger in her chubby little had and she grabbed on. 

Sam chuckled a little. “I think it’s because it’s so hard to be sad around you,” he said fondly pressing a kiss to his lover’s head as he pressed a finger to Ami’s other hand smiling brightly when she grabbed hold. When she started to cry again a couple hours later Sam looked at Gabriel and asked, “Hungry?”

“Probably,” he said so Sam got up and took her over to Kali who was just stirring awake. 

Dean picked his head up long enough to see that it was taken care of before he lay back down and passed out. “Let me know when you’re done and I’ll take care of her,” Sam whispered to Kali. It was getting pretty late now…well their new late anyway…so Sam and Gabriel had just been waiting until after the next feeding to put her down and go to bed. 

When they heard the quiet, “She’s finished,” from Kali, Sam went over and picked Ami back up and grabbed a diaper and the wipes and lay her down on the couch and changed her diaper under Gabriel’s watchful eye. 

“You’re a natural at this kiddo,” Gabriel said with a fond smile. 

Sam looked up at him and grinned before he went over to place her gently in the drawer. As soon as he put her down though she started to cry, so he picked her back up and she stopped. He looked at Gabriel for some help and Gabriel laughed. “Looks like she’s a people person. Here. Let me. Watch and learn Samsquatch.” 

Gabriel took her and started walking a circle around the room gently bouncing his arms and humming softly. It took about twenty minutes before he made it back to the makeshift cradle and very slowly and gently laid her down before backing away just as slowly. Once it was clear that she wasn’t going to wake up again he turned to Sam and grinned, pulling the hunter over to the mattress and lying down with him. “You are so good with her. I don’t know what we would do without you,” Sam whispered kissing Gabriel softly. 

“Fenny used to be the same way as a baby. He would be happy as a clam all day as long as someone was holding him, but if you put him down he would scream bloody murder. The only way to get him in his cradle was to make sure he was good and asleep first,” Gabriel said sadly. 

Gabriel didn’t often talk about his children, but Sam hoped that now that there was a baby around to relate to the stories he would open up a little more. He knew Gabriel missed them dearly. “I bet you were a wonderful father,” Sam told him. 

“I did my best,” Gabriel said pressing a kiss to the hunter’s lips. “Good night Sammy.”

“Good night Gabe,” Sam said pulling him closer in an attempt to comfort him. 

They were all pulled from sleep a few hours later to the sound of a screaming baby. “I got her,” Sam called. He wanted to see if he could get her back to sleep like Gabriel did. If Gabriel was right, there would be more than enough chances for everyone to get a turn. He picked her up and took her to Kali who groggily fed and burped her before Sam took her back, changed her diaper and started walking the circle, bouncing and humming. He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, unlike Gabriel who had a beautiful voice, but Ami didn’t seem to care. Once he saw that she had fallen asleep, he grinned in triumph and took a few more laps before gently lying her down. When she didn’t wake up again, he padded slowly back to bed, still grinning and slid back in behind Gabriel. 

“Nice job Sammich,” Gabriel murmured sleepily. Seemed he had been watching after all. He wasn’t the only one either, both Dean and Kali had been watching too and taking notes. 

The next time they were woken by cries they heard Dean’s voice, “Got it.” Seemed that Sam had started a trend. It was the most logical way to do it though, rather than having everyone get up only to find that someone else got there first. Sam just dozed right back off, but, like last time, Gabriel watched in case he was needed and the archangel grinned when Dean too got her back to bed with little fuss and fell back to sleep. 

The next time she woke up the sun was rising and Kali got her, feeling relatively well rested. She settled gingerly on the couch, still sore from the birth, as she fed, burped and changed the baby, and then just sat there holding her and watching her for a long while. It was about an hour and a half before the men stirred again and, like the day before Gabriel took Ami while they were eating before giving her back to Kali. He knew well the bond between mother and child and wouldn’t keep her away as long as Kali was up. 

In fact, he planned to stay back for the most part and let Dean and Kali have her to themselves for the day and silently communicated the same to Sam. So after breakfast he said, “Sam and I should go check the roof.” It wasn’t just an excuse. Gabriel was beyond paranoid about getting trapped again while they were all here and there was no one to dig them out. 

They took their time and cleared most of the snow away from the edges to make sure that it was still sturdy before heading back inside to find Kali curled up with Dean on the couch, both playing with the baby. She looked up when they came in and waved them over. Gabriel plopped onto Sam’s lap after he sat down and Kali looked at him smiling brightly. “You were right.”

“Bout what?” Gabriel asked. 

“I can feel my powers starting to come back. I can’t do anything yet of course, but they are there. And I can also feel her power. She’s going to be very powerful one day,” she said smiling lovingly at the baby in her arms. 

“That’s wonderful Kali. I’m so happy for you,” Gabriel said cheerfully. 

“You got anything from your powers yet?” Dean asked Gabriel.

“Nah,” Gabriel said shaking his head. 

“You still think they aren’t coming back?” Sam asked softly. 

“I would be very surprised if they did,” Gabriel said trying to keep the sadness out of his voice. 

“I’m sorry Gabriel,” Kali said sincerely. 

“Don’t be. This little beauty was more than worth it,” Gabriel said earnestly. 

They easily settled into a routine. In the mornings Sam and Gabriel would take a nice long walk to get out for a while and give the new family some alone time and in the afternoons, Kali and Dean would do the same giving the uncles some time with their niece. They were all getting a bit of cabin fever from being inside so much, but they didn’t want to expose Ami to the cold just yet unless they had to. 

It was only a week before Kali and Dean felt ready to be on their own with Ami, but before they could leave Gabriel stopped them. “Sam and I have discussed it and you two should stay here. It’s bigger and you should have more room since you have a baby and all now. We’ll take your place.”

“You guys sure?” Dean asked. It did make more sense, plus this was the hangout place so by switching they wouldn’t have to lug Ami back and forth every day. 

“Absolutely,” Sam said. “We should have done it sooner really. Just didn’t think about it.”

“Well thanks. We appreciate it,” Dean said with a smile. 

Sam and Gabriel grabbed the few personal things they had and all the clothes they had in the room, packing them in their bags. “We’ll be back in a little while with the rest of your stuff,” Sam promised. Most of their stuff was already there since they had been staying there and had very few personal items to begin with so it wouldn’t be a difficult prospect. “We’ll swing by this afternoon?” Sam asked. 

“You better,” Dean said with a grin clapping them both on the shoulder. 

Sam and Gabe, each with a pack on their backs, each grabbed an end of the mattress and headed out to their new home and they found a new routine. They would hang out at home or go out and walk around until after lunch when they would go to Dean and Kali’s so they could get a break.


	28. Chapter 28

Kali’s powers were coming back at a snail’s pace. Gabriel figured it was because her body was still so drained from breastfeeding. After a month about the only real change was that they didn’t need a lighter to light the fireplace anymore. Thankfully her passive powers were active again so she didn’t need to worry about having another baby so soon, nor did she have to worry about getting cold and she was back to walking around in her normal attire rather than all bundled up. As close to her normal attire as they had anyway. 

Ami was just a little over a month old when Gabriel woke abruptly in the middle of the night and sat up, grabbing Sam’s arm. “Sammy!” 

“What?” he asked sleepily before he shot awake completely and said more clearly, “What is it Gabriel? What’s wrong?”

Gabriel laughed loudly and happily. “Nothing is wrong Sammy. Nothing at all. Everything is amazing!”

“Then why…” Sam started but trailed off as he remembered the last time Gabriel woke up like this. “Your powers?” he asked hopefully. Gabriel nodded, grinning from ear to ear. “Really?!” Sam said excitedly. “That is amazing!” 

Gabriel tackled him back onto the bed kissing him soundly for a few minutes before he curled back up to the hunter’s side. “Sorry I woke you up Sammy. I was just too excited. We can go back to sleep now.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m not,” Sam said happily wrapping his arms tightly around his angel. 

It was a few minutes later before Sam couldn’t help himself anymore. “Gabriel?”

“Hmm?” Sam could tell by his tone that he wasn’t sleeping or close to it. He was probably still too excited. 

“You said something once about us being able to have kids if you got your powers back.”

Gabriel lifted his head from Sam’s shoulder and looked at him hopefully. “Is that something you want?”

Sam nodded, “Very much so. But how would it work?”

“Well I can bend reality remember, and shift my shape. I can easily become a woman long enough to carry a child,” he explained. “Hell I became a mare once to do it. A woman is a piece of cake,” he said with a laugh. 

Sam laughed at that too. He had a point there. “How long do you think?”

“No idea. Could be a month. Could be a year. Probably not more than that,” Gabriel said with a shrug before looking at Sam and wagging his eyebrows, “We should probably get some practice in.”

Sam laughed and decided to tease him. “Well it would be a lot different with a woman, so I don’t know how much good the practice would do.” He got an evil smirk then and said, “Unless of course you want me to go find Kali.”

Gabriel pounced on top of Sam straddling his lap with his hands on Sam’s shoulders. “Over my dead body Sam-a-lam,” he said with a laugh as Sam pulled him down for a kiss. Thirty minutes later found them sleeping again, sated and happy. 

The next day they bounded down the stairs to Dean’s after lunch and Gabriel was practically dancing and sang, “Guess who’s getting his powers back?” as he did a little spin scooping up Ami from her mother’s arms. “That’s right little princess. Pretty soon Uncle Gabe will be able to snap you up a playground, and a pony, and a nice big castle fit for a beautiful princess like you.”

Everyone laughed at the archangel’s antics and Dean said through his laughter, “How about we wait until she can walk before getting her ponies and playgrounds and castles hmm?

“You hear that princess? Daddy’s just no fun is he?” he cooed at her. 

Dean rolled his eyes good-naturedly as he and Kali were getting ready for their walk. “Sammy, control your man and don’t let him get my baby a yacht before we get back?”

“I’ll do my best,” Sam said laughing. He went over to Gabriel and said, “Gimme.”

When Gabriel handed over the baby Sam started cooing over her next, “Your Uncle Gabe is so silly isn’t he,” as he sat down on the couch with her and Gabriel plopped next to him leaning over to play with her too. 

“But let me tell you a secret little one,” Gabriel whispered conspiratorily. “The best thing your Uncle Gabe is gonna get you is a bunch of new little cousins.” 

He looked up at Sam grinning and Sam leaned over and gave him a kiss and said, “I can’t wait.”

 

By the end of March when Ami was two months old Kali had most of her old powers back and could transport herself to different locations as long as she didn’t overdo it. Even at her best she was never as powerful as Gabriel though so she couldn’t search the world for more survivors though she did pop randomly around to the major capitals of the world. Only one a day though as she was still recovering. Every day she reported back the same thing. Everywhere she checked was in the same condition as here and she hadn’t seen anyone else alive. 

They had already suspected it, but now they had more proof that they were the last people on Earth. She could have started destroying the debris around them, but decided against it as they never knew what they might need, and until Gabriel’s ability to create was back, she refrained from destroying anything. After she checked the last major capital Gabriel asked her, “Hey Kali, remember my tropical island?” She nodded so he said, “You think you can check that out tomorrow? See if anything survived there?”

Dean looked at him curiously. Why would he think that something there might survive when the rest of the world was in shambles? Sam answered the question for him though. “You had the place warded to the gills didn’t you?”

“Damn right I did. I don’t know if the warding would have held up to that kind of power though. Never tested it against exploding archangels,” he said wryly. 

The next day Kali came back and told him, “I’m sorry Gabriel. It’s a desert with a pile of debris where the house used to be. Even the pier is gone. You can’t even tell it was ever there.”

Gabriel just shrugged. “Oh well. Once I’m back up to snuff I can rebuild. Was just hoping we could retreat there now.”

“Speaking of,..When do you think you’ll be ‘up to snuff’? We only have about a month’s worth of supplies left so we’ll need to get moving before long if we’re going to,” Dean asked. 

“We don’t need to go anywhere Deano. I’ll be able to snap up some food and other small stuff by then. I could probably manage now, but I’m trying to save what I can in case it’s needed,” Gabriel told them. 

“Needed for what?” Dean asked incredulously. What could possibly be more important that having some real food after a year of nothing but canned crap. 

“No matter how careful we are accidents can happen, you know. If someone gets seriously hurt, or Ami gets sick we will need my power for healing and I’m not exactly looking forward to being powerless again if I have to drain myself because you wanted a nice dinner,” Gabriel said testily. 

“Right. Sorry. Didn’t think of that,” Dean said sheepishly. “But you’ll be able to by next month without impeding your ability to heal?” 

“Yeah. I should be able to. At the very least I’ll be able to make some of the cans self-refilling until I can do more,” he said. “That’s a relatively easy trick and I could do that now if we needed to.”

“We’ll make sure we don’t eat the last can of anything then,” Sam said happily. The idea of having real food in just a month was making his mouth water. 

 

The next month they were running low on supplies when Gabriel called them outside and had Kali get rid of all the debris in a wide circle. “Now I want you kiddos to know that this is a one-time thing, but we could use a real celebration so here we go,” he said as he snapped his fingers and a huge table appeared with the best spread of foods they could imagine. They couldn’t do this inside because the table was too big to fit with all the other furniture there and it was a nice day. 

They all immediately scrambled over each other to get at the food, Dean handing Ami off to Gabriel who just rolled his eyes at the mad dash. He went over more sedately and made his own plate with one hand before moving down to sit next to where Sam was already eating. He pulled a small bowl with a tiny spoon over next to him and propped Ami on his lap leading against him as he fed her with the hand that was at her side and ate his own food with his other hand. 

“What’s she eating?” Dean asked curiously seeing that she, despite making a big mess, seemed to like it. It was her first time having anything except for milk after all. 

“Strained peaches and carrots and no you can’t have any,” Gabriel said teasingly. 

Dean just shrugged and went back to his over-full plate. They had turkey and a roast for meat dishes, as well as pasta salad, mashed potatoes, stuffing, biscuits, dinner rolls, and of course three different pies for desert. One chocolate for Gabriel, one apple and one cherry for the rest, though if Gabriel snuck Ami a taste of the chocolate no one said a word. 

They all ate until they were stuffed and there was still a ton of food left. “Tell me the rest of this isn’t going to waste?” Dean groaned. 

“Course not,” Gabriel said as he snapped his fingers again and a pile of Tupperware appeared on the table. “Have at.”

They started packing everything away. They would have leftovers for a few days at least. There were two bowls for each dish they had. One for each household, but before they left to start lugging it all back Gabriel said, “One more for you guys” and pulled out a Tupperware dish with multiple slots filled with strained baby foods. “One slot, twice a day in addition to nursing,” he told Dean and Kali. It was time to start the little one on more solid foods. 

After that feast Gabriel got hugs and thanks all around and he was beaming happily as he helped Sam carry their haul home.


	29. Chapter 29

They ended up staying in Sioux Falls for another four months before Gabriel was back to mostly full power and felt up to renovating the island. “I’ll be gone for a couple days Sammich, but then I’ll be back for you guys and we can live it up on a tropical beach for the rest of forever,” Gabriel promised, kissing his lover deeply. 

“I’ll miss you Gabe,” Sam said sadly as he held Gabriel tightly. They hadn’t been apart for more than a few hours at a time in a year and a half. 

“I know Samshine,” Gabriel said tucking a hair behind Sam’s ear. “I’ll miss you too, but right now the island isn’t fit for humans.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Sam said petulantly. 

Gabriel chuckled and said, “Now come on. Let’s go talk to the others. There are some decisions to be made before I start building.”

Once they were all settled in at Dean and Kali’s, Ami crawling around on the floor chasing her ball that Uncle Gabe had made her, Gabriel asked the big question they needed to decide on. “Ok so we can do this a couple ways. First decision; two houses or one house with two wings?” After some discussion it was decided on one house with two wings and then they started talking specifics, like what areas they wanted shared. They finally settled on a shared kitchen and dining room as well as a large shared living room, but separate dens in each wing for when they wanted time to themselves. Once all the big decisions had been made Gabriel headed out kissing Sam deeply and tickling Ami before he disappeared. 

Sam sighed at the blank space where he had been. Dean said, “You’re welcome to the couch if you don’t want to stay by yourself.”

Sam thought about it for a moment. On one hand he had very rarely had a chance to be alone in his life, but on the other hand the rare times that it happened it was because either Dean was dead or they had split up and weren’t speaking so not the best of connotations. “Thanks man. If you’re sure?” Dean nodded. “Then I think I will.”

Sam woke the next morning to the feeling of being watched. He creaked one eye open to see a grinning face about six inches from his own. Sam chuckled. “Good morning Ami.”

“Ami, did you wake Uncle Sammy up?” Dean asked chidingly from where he had been putting some things away while Kali was out taking a walk. 

“Not on purpose,” Sam defended her. “She was just watching me.”

Dean rolled his eyes and laughed. He wondered if they would ever stop noticing that after so long hunting. 

“C’mon Ami. It’s breakfast time for you little one,” Dean said scooping her up. 

“Do you mind if I feed her?” Sam asked. He loved nothing more than taking care of his niece. Dean just shrugged and passed him the baby food. She was up to mashed foods now instead of strained, though she still made a huge mess. The fireplaces had been going at night again for a few weeks now as it was getting colder so they were getting out of here just in time. Sam didn’t think he could take another winter being cooped up indoors most of the time. Gabriel had assured him that winter on the island was a nice sixty degrees so he was looking forward to that. 

That evening after dinner Ami started getting very agitated and they couldn’t figure out why until she said, “Gae”

“Did she just…” Dean asked not sure whether to be happy she said her first word or annoyed that it was Gabriel’s name. 

“Gae!” she said more insistently. 

“Oh he’s going to be so upset that he missed this,” Sam said with a laugh. 

“Gae!” she wailed as she started crying. 

“Can you call him Sam?” Kali asked patiently. 

Sam closed his eyes and sent a silent prayer for Gabriel to stop by as soon as he could. Gabriel popped in about ten seconds later but before he could ask what was going on he heard the most beautiful sound, “Gae!” Ami cried happily crawling as fast as she could towards him. 

He scooped her up laughing. “Oh you are such a smart little princess aren’t you? You missed Uncle Gabe?”

“Gae!”

“I think she wanted to say goodnight to you,” Sam said with a smile. 

“Did you now?” Gabriel asked her. “Well how about Uncle Gabe tucks you in tonight hmm?”

“Gae!”

Gabriel laughed and took her over to the bed that she had started sharing with her parents once she got too big for the drawer where he told her a story and tucked her in before drawing the curtain that he had made for her that blocked out light and sound so they could stay up and not bother her. 

He went over and settled on Sam’s lap kissing him soundly ignoring the gagging sounds from Dean. “I’m making better time than I thought I would. If I go now we can all have lunch on the island tomorrow. How’s that sound Samshine?” 

“Sounds wonderful except for the part where you go now,” Sam said with a smile. He could handle one more night apart though. 

Gabriel chuckled. “I love you Sammy and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I love you too Gabe,” he replied pressing one more kiss to the archangel’s lips before he disappeared. 

The next day Gabriel came and told everyone to grab anything they wanted to keep, which other than the few toys that Gabriel had snapped up for Ami, wasn’t much. And they suddenly found themselves in the center of an island paradise. “There’s still a lot of work to do, but nothing that can’t wait,” Gabriel told them.

“What’s still left to do? This is incredible!” Sam said looking around in awe. He hadn’t realized how much he missed trees and flowers and grass. 

“Just little things, I want to put some hammocks right over there, maybe a tiki bar, put up a new pier, put a crystal lake in the center,” he went on explaining his vision for the island, before pointing out one more thing. “Plus there’s all the personal stuff. I’ve got a variety of catalogs on the table in the living room so everyone can just go through and circle what you want and I’ll snap it up. Might take a few days to get some of it, but I’ll get to it.”

Sam pulled the archangel into a tight hug. “You really are amazing; you know that?” he asked as he gave him a short kiss. 

“Ok so I was thinking picnic lunch then we can tour the house?” Gabriel suggested and when everyone agreed he snapped up a picnic table full of food. 

Once they were finished eating Gabriel led them into the V shaped house and walked them through all the shared areas first before heading to what he termed as the goddess wing which Dean cringed at and vowed to never, ever call it that. They could see the excitement in Gabriel’s step as he nearly bounced down the hallway. “Ok first is the playroom,” he announced opening to door with a flourish. It looked like every child’s dream and had everything a little girl could want, done up in pretty pink and silver colors. 

“It looks like my little pony threw up in there,” Dean grumbled, but had to admit it was pretty impressive and perfect for Ami, as much as it offended his taste. 

Gabriel just grinned and moved on to the next room. “And this is Ami’s bedroom.” This one was done in a bit more understated tone, but still looked like a room fit for a princess. “And there’s a connecting door to your bedroom through here, but I can remove the wall and make it an open space if you want. And if you don’t like the colors or the furniture or anything just let me know and I’ll change it.”

Dean looked at him incredulously. “Dude we’ve been trapped in cramped dirty basements for a year and a half and you think we’re gonna get all picky about wallpaper?” 

Gabriel chuckled and shrugged, “Just putting it out there.”

“Thank you Gabriel. This is wonderful,” Kali said sincerely. 

Gabriel beamed at her before saying, “I’m still working on the entertainment aspect and we can all talk some more about what we want there once we are settled and have everything else out of the way. We’ll leave you guys alone to explore or do whatever,” he finished pulling Sam back to show him their wing of the house. 

Once they got to the ‘archangel wing’ Gabriel led Sam to their bedroom first to get his approval on the color scheme. Sam looked around impressed. “I was half expecting bright flashy colors and polka dots,” he said jokingly. 

“Nah. That room is across the hall,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

“You’re kidding,” Sam said hopefully. Gabriel led him across the hall and opened the door wide. “Oh god! My eyes! They burn!” Sam cried theatrically and Gabriel laughed loudly. 

“Gotta have somewhere to indulge my creativity,” he said through his laughter. 

“Thank you very much for not making it our bedroom.”

“Just one more thing to show you for now,” Gabriel said with a soft smile after he got his laughter under control as he moved to the room next to theirs and opened the door showing a beautiful nursery done in whites and creams. “I’ll add more color when it’s actually in use. What do you think?” he asked nervously. Now that the time was nearly here he wondered if Sam was going to back out. 

Sam turned to look at Gabriel with pure adoration shining in his eyes. He stepped forward so that he was directly in front of the archangel and ran a hand through his hair saying, “It’s absolutely perfect.”

“So what say we get started filling it up?” Gabriel asked hopefully. 

“Just one thing first,” Sam said. “Would it be possible for me to the one to…um…you know?”

“You want to be the girl and get pregnant?” Gabriel asked shocked. He hadn’t thought that Sam would go for that, though he had proven to have a bit of a maternal instinct with Ami so he shouldn’t have been as surprised as he was. 

“Yeah. I mean if it’s possible and if you don’t mind,” he said shifting uncomfortably.

“Whatever you want my Samshine, but you should know that if you do this you will be a girl the whole time, right up until the baby is born. You can’t go switching back and forth.”

“That’s ok.”


	30. Chapter 30

“Can we pretty please not tell anyone in advance and just get their reactions cold? Pretty please?” Gabriel begged doing his best impression of Sam’s puppy dog eyes. 

“Ok fine,” Sam agreed rolling his eyes. He might find it amusing to after all. There was one thing though. “What about Ami?”

“She’s a little goddess. She’ll always recognize you no matter what you look like. She sees more than your physical appearance,” Gabriel explained. 

“Really? That’s kinda cool.”

Gabriel chuckled. “So you ready to do this?” 

Sam took a deep nervous breath. “Yeah. Ok. Let’s go.” Gabriel snapped his fingers, both turning Sam into a woman and materializing a full length mirror. “Did you have to make them so big?” he whined gesturing to his chest. 

“Nope,” Gabriel said smugly.

“Gabe?” he said pleadingly. 

“Fine.” Gabriel snapped his fingers and Sam went from a DD to a C. “Better?” 

“Much.”

Gabriel stepped up close to him and tucked his, now even longer, hair behind his ear. “So hows about we break in that new body of yours hmm?” he asked seductively kissing Sam deeply. When they made love, Sam was in sensory overload at all the alien sensations that he had never felt before. They didn’t leave their room until the next morning as Gabriel used his incredibly talented tongue and lips and hands and more to show Sam all the different possible pleasures of his new temporary body. While he definitely enjoyed himself, he did like it better as himself though, as did Gabriel. 

When they left the room the next morning, Sam was more than a little nervous about his brother’s reaction, but also looking forward to seeing the look on his face. He flat out refused to wear a dress though. He would stick with t-shirts and jeans thank you very much. Gabriel could sense that the other family was in the kitchen and pulled Sam downstairs peeking in the door to see what they were doing. He wanted to time this right. He knew Kali and Ami would sense him but they weren’t who he was trying to surprise. 

He smirked when he saw Dean and Kali eating breakfast while Ami played on the floor so he linked his arm with Sam’s and threw the doors open. “Good morning everyone. I’m famished,” he said snapping his fingers and sitting down at the table pulling Sam into his lap. 

Dean’s jaw dropped and then he started coughing, having inhaled half his food and the look on his face was beyond priceless. Sam buried his face in Gabriel’s neck to hide his laughter. The archangel was much better at keeping a straight face than he was. Kali had no such compunctions though as she started laughing heartily, unclear whether it was at Sam or at Dean, though Gabriel would guess Dean. She had surely suspected that they would do something like this. 

Once Dean got his coughing under control he said, “S-Sam? Um…is that…you?” Sam looked up and nodded unable to hold in his laughter anymore at the look on his brother’s face. Once Sam was laughing Dean knew that there wasn’t anything wrong so turned his attention to teasing his brother. “Geez Samantha. I always knew you were a girl. You didn’t have to prove it.”

Gabriel laughed, “Samantha! I love it! That’s your new name Sammy.”

“Not gonna happen,” Sam told his lover. 

“Seriously though Sammy. What’s the deal?” Dean asked. 

“Well now that we don’t have to worry about survival, Gabe and I want a baby too.”

All the color drained from Dean’s face. “You mean, you’re…um…pregnant?”

“We’re working on it,” Gabriel said with a wink.

“Dude! Come on! I’m eating!” Dean yelled.

“So was I,” Gabriel countered suggestively and Sam smacked his arm. 

“That’s it. I’m done,” Dean said dropping his fork and pushing his plate away. “Um…congratulations I guess,” he said as he rushed from the room. 

Gabriel then pointed out the plate he had snapped up for Sam. “Eat Samsquatch. You’ll be eating for two soon enough.”

 

It took a little while for Dean to get used to the idea, but by the time Sam was two months along he had come to terms with it, though he still took every opportunity to pick on his brother about it. True to Gabriel’s word Ami barely noticed the difference and Kali was happy for them from the very start. 

They were all lying on the beach getting some sun while Ami crawled around in the sand. She was getting much more comfortable with her surroundings and exploring a little more. When she started heading for the water though Dean sat up worriedly and started to go after her before Gabriel stopped him. “Don’t worry Deano. I babyproofed the whole island. She can’t touch the water unless one of us is holding her,” he said lazily with his hands behind his head not bothering to move. 

Dean still watched worriedly, but trusted Gabriel enough not to run after her and he finally relaxed when he saw that she was blocked from going any further and he lay back down. “So what kind of restrictions are on that barrier?” Dean asked curiously. 

“No one under the age of ten can pass unless they are touching an adult,” Gabriel explained.

“Isn’t ten still a little young to be in the ocean unattended?” Sam asked. 

“By the time she or any of our other kids are that age they will have enough control over their powers to get themselves out of any issues that may arise,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“You guys keep saying that Ami will have powers but I haven’t seen anything from her yet,” Dean said confused. 

“I’m blocking her active powers for now,” Kali informed him. “She still has use of her passive powers though. That’s why she’s never been sick or hurt.”

“Oh. That’s good. But doesn’t it get tiring to keep her powers blocked like that?” he asked her worriedly. 

“Gabriel helps a lot too,” she explained.

“My powers are a lot stronger than Kali’s so I just give it a little boost when needed.”

“You know what I just realized?” Sam asked. “Dean and I are going to be the only powerless people in the world from now on.”

“Well until we die anyway, then there will be none,” Dean added. Gabriel and Kali shifted uncomfortably at that and Sam just grinned. “What? Dean asked getting the idea that he was missing something. 

“Well the thing is…you and Sam are immortal now too,” Gabriel said sheepishly. 

“What? How? When?” Dean sputtered. 

“Neither of us were willing to lose either of you so we gave you immortality as soon as our powers were strong enough,” Kali explained. 

“Without asking us first?!” Dean said annoyed, but then noticed the look on Sam’s face. “You knew!” he accused his brother. 

“I knew that they were probably going to, but not that they already had,” he said with a shrug. He had already gotten over the idea.

“Did you get asked first?” he asked heatedly. 

“No,” Sam said wryly. “I got informed, way back at the beginning that it would happen as soon as Gabriel was able.”

“It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission,” Gabriel said perkily. 

“This way you’ll never have to leave me or Ami,” Kali said softly putting a hand on Dean’s arm so Dean let it go, grudgingly. 

After a while though Dean seemed to have come to terms with it because the next thing he said was, “No powers though?”

Gabriel laughed, “Sorry bucko. That’s a little beyond our capabilities.”

 

It was another two months after that, just after Ami’s first birthday, while Sam was four months along that they felt the baby kick for the first time. Everyone was so excited, but especially Gabriel and Sam. In fact, Gabriel could rarely be seen without his hand on Sam’s stomach after that. One night while they were lying in bed after making love, Sam thought of something. “I’m not going to be able to go back to myself for a while after she’s born am I?”

“Why not?” Gabriel asked. “And what makes you think it’ll be a she?” They wanted to be surprised so Gabriel was careful not to look for the sex and even if he had Sam didn’t want to know. He was sure Kali knew though and Ami didn’t know the difference between boys and girls yet anyway so wouldn’t be able to spill the beans. 

“Just a feeling, and I’ll need to be able to nurse her won’t I?” Sam pointed out. 

“Not necessarily. I can snap up some milk for him or her anytime it’s needed, but if you want to nurse you can do that as a man too. Men do have all the necessary equipment for it, they just don’t usually have the right hormone balances to do so, but you will, if that’s something you want.”

Sam rested his/her head on Gabriel’s chest. “Yeah. I do want. At least for a while.”

“Then I’ll make sure you can,” Gabriel said softly just holding his lover as they drifted off to sleep. Gabriel didn’t actually need to sleep anymore, and when they first arrived, rarely did sleep from being so busy getting everything set up and snapping up all the stuff they needed and wanted, but now that things had calmed down, he enjoyed sleeping with Sam so he did so more often than not.


	31. Chapter 31

Dean and Kali both had tempers on them and it would be a lie to say that they never fought, but this one was a doozy. Gabriel and Sam, now seven months pregnant, had come out side to see them screaming at each other while Ami sat to the side watching fearfully with tears streaming down her face. Gabriel motioned for Sam to grab Ami. He would have, but he was about to step into the line of fire, quite literally as Kali looked about three seconds from shooting fireballs at the hunter. “ENOUGH!” Gabriel bellowed as he stepped between them and they both glared at him. 

He knew that Kali, with her powers was the more volatile one, but he needed to get the story from someone so he turned to her and said sternly, “Kali, take a walk.”

“And if I don’t want to?” she challenged. 

He glared her down and said threateningly, “Take a walk before I make you.”

After she stormed off down the beach, dress billowing behind her Gabriel turned to Dean. “What is going on here?”

“She seems to think we will have grandchildren someday!” Dean said heatedly. 

Gabriel looked confused for a moment and said, “Why wouldn’t you?”

Dean looked at him incredulously. “Maybe because everyone here would be related to her or did you forget that Sam and I are brothers?” he spat angrily.

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly. He didn’t even want to know how this conversation had come up, but of course it had to be between the volatile couple that seem to forget how to communicate as soon as they started getting their dander’s up. “Ok you need to understand something Deano. The whole incest is bad idea is a purely human notion, which makes sense given the problems that inbreeding can cause among humans, but with gods and angels we don’t have those problems, so there is no taboo or anything surrounding it. All angels are brothers and sisters after all. You really think we don’t form relationships?”

Dean was already so far gone that trying to talk him down just made him angrier and he took a swing at the archangel. Gabriel caught his fist long before it connected and just ground out, “Take a walk, Dean.”

“You can’t tell me what to do, Gabriel.”

Gabriel squeezed his fist just hard enough to prove who was in charge here, but not enough to cause more than momentary pain, and growled, “I just did,” and Dean snatched his hand away and stormed off down the beach in the opposite direction from Kali. He let out a heavy sigh and then went looking for Sam and Ami. 

Sam had gone into the house with the upset toddler and watched from the window. Far enough that they couldn’t hear, but Sam could still see what was going on. After Dean took off, he saw Gabriel start to storm towards the house. He really hoped he wouldn’t come in all pissed after he had just gotten Ami calmed down, and his hopes were founded. By the time Gabriel came in the door he had a smile plastered on his face and took Ami from Sam and sat down with her bouncing her on his knee. Sam could tell that Gabriel was pretty pissed and was just wearing a mask for Ami’s sake, but he knew that nothing would calm him down faster than playing with his niece. 

“Everything ok?” Sam asked looking for some more information. 

Gabriel waved him off, “Just a misunderstanding. I’m sure I’ll have to explain things to Dean again after he calms down so I can get you both at once.”

“Is this another ‘we’re different than humans’ thing?” Sam asked curiously. 

“Yeah,” Gabriel said as he dangled one of Ami’s favorite toys in front of her face as she grabbed for it. When she laughed, so did Gabriel and Sam could see the tension rolling off of him. Gabriel really would be a wonderful father, Sam thought as he rubbed his swollen belly. 

 

Two months later, Sam was leaning against Gabriel on the couch, both of Gabriel’s hands over his stomach, while they chatted cheerfully with Dean and Kali, and played with Ami, when suddenly Sam doubled over in pain and a gush of fluid washed over the couch. Kali rushed over to grab Ami, who was in the path that Sam and Gabriel would need to walk, and once the contraction was over, Gabriel, who had been supporting Sam through it, jumped to his feet and pulled Sam up, snapping his fingers and cleaning up the mess as he led the currently female hunter back to their bedroom murmuring words of comfort. 

Gabriel sat behind Sam, supporting him/her through most of the labor, only moving between Sam’s legs when it was time to push. It wasn’t long before the sounds of a baby’s cries echoed through the room and Gabriel snapped his fingers to clean and wrap the baby and said the same blessing that he had when Ami was born before settling next to Sam with their child and saying, “Looks like your feeling was right Samshine. We have a beautiful daughter.”

They had decided to let Gabriel choose the first name and Sam would choose the middle name. “What’s her first name?” Sam asked. 

“Sylvi. It means comes from strength and since Gabriel means strength I thought it fitting,” Gabriel said with a smile. 

“I like it.” Sam was a little nervous about the middle name he had chosen, but he had a backup in case Gabriel didn’t like it. “I was thinking…if it’s ok…maybe her middle name could be Helen?” It was close enough to Hela to remember her by, but not so close to make it uncomfortable. Or so Sam hoped. 

Gabriel closed his eyes willing back the tears at the thoughtful gesture before he kissed Sam softly and said, “It’s perfect. Thank you Sammy.” He would never have suggested naming one of his new children after one of his other children. It would seem too much like he was trying to replace them. But since Sam brought it up, and it wasn’t exactly the same name, it wasn’t so bad. 

About that time Sylvi started fussing so Sam took her and started nursing her while Gabriel watched with tears in his eyes and rested his cheek against Sam’s head. “I love you so much. Both of you,” he couldn’t manage more than a whisper as he reached out a hand and stroked his daughter’s cheek. Seeing Sam with their child filled a hole in him that he hadn’t realized he had. 

Once she was fed and changed, Gabriel took her back and kissed Sam’s forehead. “I’ll take her to meet the rest of the family while you get some rest. Sam caught Gabriel’s wrist before he got too far and pulled his hand to his lips pressing a gentle kiss to it, that being all he had the energy to do before he whispered, “I love you Gabe. Thank you.”

Gabriel squeezed his hand. “No, Sammy. Thank you.”

Sam woke again a few hours later as Gabriel was bringing a crying Sylvi into the room. As promised he was a man again, but still able to nurse her. He ran a hand over her head ruffling her tuft of blonde hair as she fed. Gabriel wondered how long it would be before the sight of this stopped choking him up. While he had cared for Angrboða, it had been nothing like the love he felt for Sam. He felt just as strongly about the children, of course, but seeing her with them had never brought Gabriel to tears the way it was with Sam. 

It was well into the night by now, so once Sylvi was done feeding Gabriel took her so that Sam could sleep. He went into the nursery which was now done in soft pinks and creams, and, leaving the door open so he could watch Sam as well, settled into the rocking chair with his precious new daughter. 

He had woken Sam a few more times that night to feed their daughter, but Gabriel hadn’t gone to bed, choosing instead to use the time to bond with Sylvi. After the first feeding after the sun had come up, Sam was awake and recovered from the birth. When he was turned back into a man he didn’t have to worry about the soreness associated with it, just the fatigue. He took Gabriel’s place in the rocking chair in the nursery to feed her, Gabriel leaning against the doorway watching with bright eyes. 

Once she was done eating, Gabriel asked, “Do you feel up to going to the kitchen for breakfast or do you want me to snap you up something here?”

“We can go to the kitchen,” Sam said as he got up and started heading that way. 

Dean and Kali had met Sylvi the night before, but Ami had already been in bed, so Gabriel took Sylvi and sat on the floor so that Ami could meet her. The first thing Ami said was, “baby pwetty.” Before she went over and got her favorite stuffed lizard and put it on Sylvi’s chest. 

Gabriel smiled and kissed the toddler’s forehead as he pulled her into a one armed hug. “You’re such a sweet little princess,” he told her affectionately. 

Sam enjoyed watching Gabriel with the baby almost as much as Gabriel did Sam, so he ate absentmindedly watching Gabriel sit on the floor playing with the little ones. Kali and Dean had decided to give the new family the day before they started chomping at the bit to hold the baby. They had held her for a bit the night before, but Gabriel had been loath to give her up for long, so after breakfast they took Ami out to the beach.

Once Sam was finished eating Gabriel handed Sylvi back to him. He had gotten his bonding time with her overnight while Sam was sleeping. It was Sam’s turn now. Sam took her back to the nursery, wanting her to get used to the room, and sat in the rocking chair with her and Gabriel kissed them both and gave them some time alone. He didn’t go far of course, but gave Sam the same quiet peace that he had enjoyed while the hunter got to know his daughter.


	32. Chapter 32

After lunch Gabriel joined Sam and Sylvi as they curled up on the couch in their den together, but after dinner, Gabriel put Sylvi in her crib for the first time and took Sam’s hand, leading him to their bedroom and lying him down in bed. “I’ve missed your body so much my Sammy.”

“Really? I thought you kinda liked the other one,” Sam said shyly. 

“I did, but not nearly as much as this one. This is you Samshine. And nothing could ever compare to the real you,” Gabriel said kissing him deeply enjoying the feel of the stubble against his chin as he slid on top of Sam running his hands over the hunter’s still slightly swollen chest and rock hard abs. He moved his lips to Sam’s neck as he started unbuttoning Sam’s shirt grinding his hips down so Sam could feel his aching erection. That more than anything else convinced Sam of his sincerity. Oh he could get hard for him when he was a girl, but never so quickly and effortlessly and that alone got Sam hard along with him. 

Gabriel kissed a straight line down Sam’s chest and over his stomach before he started unbuttoning Sam’s pants and slid them off. Sam had forgotten how amazing this was as Gabriel took his time kissing and licking all over his cock and driving Sam crazy before taking his cock in his mouth and moaning deeply, echoed by Sam. Gabriel was so torn. On one hand he wanted Sam to cum in his mouth and swallow every drop, but he needed to be fucked so badly. Finally, he decided that Sam was a young virile man. He could have both.

He drew it out for a long time. So long that he was glad he had his powers again or he would have been long past his own endurance, but he wanted Sam to be inside him when he came. After what seemed like forever, he picked up the pace of his mouth on the hunter’s cock, his tongue dancing over all the spots that he knew would make the hunter come undone. “Gah…Gabe…gonna…gonna cum…shit…Gabe!” 

Gabriel just hummed appreciatively as Sam spent himself in the archangel’s mouth, but he didn’t move after Sam was done. His tongue continued it’s dance and Sam never even got the chance to get completely soft before he was aching again and Gabriel slid upwards kissing the hunter deeply. Sam could taste himself in Gabriel’s mouth and he moaned again. Gabriel pulled back enough to say breathlessly, “Take me Sammy…please…need to feel you.”

Sam effortlessly shifted them so that Gabriel was underneath him and began pressing desperate kisses all over the archangel’s neck, nipping across his jaw and collarbone, and trailing his tongue over Gabriel’s chest as he slipped a lubed finger into the archangel’s tight ass. He prepped him quickly. He needed to be inside Gabriel as much as Gabriel needed it. As he slid slowly in relishing the remembered sensation Gabriel made a choking sort of sound and his hand shot quickly to his own cock squeezing the base almost painfully. Even his powers hadn’t been enough to stop him from nearly blowing his load right there. 

Sam leaned up and kissed him deeply as he moved slowly, just rocking his hips while Gabriel pulled himself under control. Once Gabriel’s hand moved away Sam started moving faster and harder. He knew he wasn’t going to last long, even after already coming once. It had been so long since he’d had this, his control was already slipping again. He knew he wouldn’t need to touch the archangel to get him off. Hell the slightest touch would probably do the trick, but he wanted Gabriel to cum just off the feel of his dick. 

He shifted himself so he was upright on his knees and Gabriel’s legs were thrown over his shoulders as he pounded into the keening archangel. “Fuck Gabe…can’t…can’t hold on…gonna cum…” Gabriel was right on the edge too and when he felt Sam blow inside him he came harder than he ever had before screaming the hunter’s name. 

“Fuck I missed you Sammy,” Gabriel gasped as the hunter collapsed bonelessly on top of him. 

 

Dean had been thinking about something for a long time, but it never seemed like a good time to bring it up. By the time Gabriel had his full powers back, Sam was pregnant and Gabriel wouldn’t leave his side, but he couldn’t keep putting it off forever so one day when they were all sitting around the living room, Sam and Gabriel cuddling with both kids, Dean brought up the elephant in the room. He knew that with both the little ones on Gabriel it would help keep him calm. “So…um…Gabe. I was thinking…we really should know what’s going on in heaven.”

Gabriel visibly tensed and closed his eyes against the torrent of emotions running through him. Sam tightened his arms around the archangel in support. He hadn’t really considered it, but Dean did have a point. If the angels were going to try to cause any more trouble down here, or take over, or whatever else they might have in mind, they needed to know. 

Gabriel hadn’t been back to heaven since the day he left. He didn’t want to go back. He couldn’t bear to see what it had become, but Dean was right. He had to stop burying his head in the sand. He took a deep breath before saying in a strained voice, “Yeah. I’ll go tonight once the kids are in bed.” Then he turned to Sam and asked, “You gonna be ok with Sylvi tonight while I’m gone?” It wasn’t that he thought that Sam couldn’t handle her alone. Sam was a wonderful father, but he was used to Gabriel bringing her to him for her nighttime feedings and putting her back to bed, so what he was really asking was if Sam minded getting up with her. 

Luckily for him, Sam knew what he meant and just said, “Yeah Gabe. I don’t mind.”

He nodded tersely and Ami apparently picked up on his tension because she stood up on the couch and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissed his cheek, and said, “lub oo Gae.”

He pulled her tight with his free arm and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I love you too precious,” he whispered before turning and handing Sylvi to Sam and telling her, and thus the rest of the room as well, “Uncle Gabe’s gonna go take a walk.” He got up and walked calmly from the room not looking back.

Sam watched him go and thought about going after him, but he knew that Gabriel would want some time alone. He would give him a little while before going to find him. “I’m sorry Sam, but someone had to bring it up sometime,” Dean said apologetically. 

“I know,” Sam said tiredly. “We can’t hide here forever and we need to know what to expect out there.” Gabriel had the island warded so tightly that no one would ever find it, but eventually they would want to see what else was out there, and maybe start rebuilding the rest of the world. After about an hour Sam got up and handed Sylvi to Kali and said, “I’m gonna go talk to him.”

 

It took Sam about an hour to find Gabriel at the far end of the island, standing still as a statue, staring out over the water at a storm that he had likely created. Sam came up behind him, wrapped his arms around the archangel’s stomach, and pressed a soft kiss to the side of his neck, not saying a word, just being there for support. After a little while Gabriel said, “I don’t want to go back.”

“I know,” Sam said softly. 

“Tell me I don’t have to?” Gabriel asked hopelessly. 

“I can’t,” Sam replied pulling him tighter. 

“It’s…it’s not home anymore,” Gabriel said brokenly.

Sam knew what Gabriel was feeling. It was always hard to go back to your first home after a long time away. Doubly so when the parting had been as terrible as Gabriel’s was. That longing for something of the past, something of who you were, would probably never go away. “This is your home now Gabe. With me and Sylvie and all our future children…and Dean and Kali and Ami. We are your home, and your family, and we will always be here for you.”

“I just…I keep expecting to mess this up too..just like…” he trailed off, unable to form any more words. 

Sam’s heart broke for his lover. He had gotten much better since Ami was born, but some part of him still saw himself as the archangel who messed everything up and was destined to lose everything he ever cared about. The idea of going back to heaven, where it all started, was bringing those feelings back to the forefront. Sam moved around so that he was in front of Gabriel and looked into his eyes that were brimming with tears. “You won’t Gabriel. You can’t,” Sam said firmly. “There is nothing that could ever make me leave you, and I’m sure that the others feel the same way. We will spend the rest of eternity together raising dozens of children and I will spend forever thinking myself the luckiest person in all of existence to have you in my life. Never ever doubt that,” he said pressing a soft kiss to Gabriel’s lips before pulling him tightly against him. 

Gabriel rested his head on the hunter’s shoulder as his arms wrapped around Sam’s back. Somehow Sam always knew what to say to make him feel better. Sam could feel Gabriel relaxing and added, “You’re mine Gabe, and you’re crazy if you think I’m ever giving you up.”

“Thank you Sammy,” Gabriel said softly.


	33. Chapter 33

After a few minutes, Gabriel sighed. “We should probably be getting back. Sylvi will be hungry soon.” He felt Sam’s nod against his head and reluctantly pulled away from his lover’s embrace and they started walking back towards the house hand in hand. Gabriel could easily have flown them there, but he tended to use that power less and less, deciding to walk like everyone else. They knew that Dean or Kali would pray to him if they were needed immediately. 

They made it back with about ten minutes to spare before Sylvi needed to be fed again. That night after Sam and Gabriel tucked Sylvi into her crib, Gabriel kissed Sam and disappeared. Sam happened to be headed back to bed after feeding Sylvi around two am when Gabriel appeared and fell to his knees. Sam dropped to his knees in front of him and started looking for injuries, but Gabriel just took his hands in his own and said, “I’m fine Sam. I’m not hurt.”

Sam sighed in relief. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Gabriel said rather shell-shocked. “There’s nothing there. No angels, no souls, all the structures are gone…it’s just a wide open space of nothing.”

Sam grabbed Gabriel and pulled him close, still kneeling on the floor. He had so many questions but decided to wait until tomorrow to ask them. He pulled his lover to his feet and led him over to the bed before lying them both down and pulling Gabriel close to him. Gabriel instinctively wrapped his arm around the hunter’s chest and buried his face in Sam’s neck. No more words were said aloud the rest of the night, but both of them sent silent prayers to a god that no longer cared. 

 

The next evening, they were all walking on the beach when someone appeared in front of them. “Father!” Gabriel cried, shoving Sylvi into Sam’s arms and shifting everyone behind him, not that it would help if he chose to exercise his wrath, but it made Gabriel feel marginally better. He knew his father’s feelings on the offspring of angels and humans after all. 

“Gabriel. I felt that I should set your mind at ease. Your brothers are well. I have returned to them and we have moved to another location far from here.”

“Without telling me?” Gabriel asked hurt. He knew that even in hiding his father would always be able to find him, as he had just proven. 

“You made your decision a long time ago Gabriel,” God said firmly. Sam bristled and started to step forward to defend Gabriel, but the archangel beat him to it as he threw a right hook that connected with the deity’s jaw and snapped his head back. That was all the reaction they got though as God just leveled a stare back at his wayward son and said, “You should be thanking me Gabriel. This world was supposed to be a reward to my children for their hard work, and when I saw that you and your pets had survived I could easily have remedied that situation, but instead I gave them another world as their reward. You wanted this world so badly, you can have it. Do with it what you will,” he said harshly. 

“You bas…” Sam started, but Gabriel cut him off. 

“Leave it Sam,” he barked. The last thing he wanted was his father smiting his lover in a fit of temper. Sam didn’t try to speak anymore but continued to glare. 

“Fine. If this is my world now, then you can leave,” Gabriel said leveling his own glare at his father who simply nodded and disappeared and Gabriel heaved a sigh of relief that his family was safe.

“How dare he!?” Sam said angrily. 

“Sam,” Gabriel said warningly.

“He just stands by and watches you be abused…by everyone and doesn’t lift a finger…”

“Sam!” Gabriel said more firmly and with more volume.

“And then he casts out the one person who tried to help you and stand up for you and has the nerve to…”

“SAM!” Gabriel yelled.

Sam stopped and looked around to Dean and Kali standing there with shocked expressions on their faces and he realized that he had been broadcasting Gabriel’s secrets to everyone and his face went pale. “Shit Gabriel, I’m so sorry.”

Gabriel just turned on his heel and stormed off down the beach leaving a distraught lover with the other couple who had just managed to break out of their shock. Sam just sat down where he stood, his legs no longer able to hold him as he cradled his daughter close to his chest and muttered, “What have I done?” 

He and Gabriel had argued before, not often since they were both very level-headed and tended to talk things out before they turned into arguments, but it had happened. Gabriel had never walked away from him like that before though. He had never brushed off an apology. He had never stormed off without a word and Sam didn’t know what to do. He wanted to go after him, apologize again, make him accept it, but Sam knew that he had really screwed up this time. Gabriel never wanted anyone to know about his life before leaving heaven and Sam had just blurted it out to everyone. 

Dean started to say, “What did you mean…” but then Kali smacked his arm. 

“It’s none of our business Dean,” she said firmly. “And even if it were, now is not the time.”

Dean and Kali mobilized into action, Kali putting Ami back down from where she had scooped her up when their visitor appeared and stepped over to Sam, pulling Sylvi from his arms as Dean helped his brother up and started leading him back to the house. Once they were inside, Sam jerked from his brother’s grip, took Sylvi back from Kali and headed towards his room. 

“Sam,” Kali called after him. “You know he’ll be back. He just needs to blow off some steam.”

Sam nodded morosely. Even though he knew she was right deep down, he couldn’t quite believe it in his current mental state. 

After he fed Sylvi and put her to bed he went and lay down in his own bed, finally allowing the tears to fall. He had to find a way to fix this. He couldn’t lose Gabriel. Not like this. He cringed as he heard the rain pounding on the roof and the quick thunderclap that followed. He thought back to the first storm that he had experienced with the archangel when he had been so worried. He remembered Gabriel saying that he liked storms as long as he was able to protect himself from them. Apparently that was true, but it didn’t help him feel any better as the tears continued to fall. 

Dean and Kali had just gotten Ami tucked into bed when the storm started. They stuck close by in case Ami got scared, but she didn’t. She had never known fear or pain, so didn’t really understand the concept so she slept on peacefully. “So God has cut us off huh?” Dean summed up. 

“It seems so,” Kali said. She didn’t really care much herself, but she could see why it upset Gabriel so much. 

“Well I say good riddance. He never did anything but screw everything up anyway. You and Gabe are all we need and have done a much better job than he ever did,” Dean said with conviction. 

Kali smiled and wrapped her arms around him. “And we will continue to do so,” she promised. 

“If Gabriel comes back you mean,” Dean said. He didn’t think Gabriel would abandon them, but then he had abandoned his family before. Of course if he understood what Sam had said correctly he had every reason to.

“He will come back. I’m certain of it,” she assured him. 

“I hope so,” Dean said sadly cringing as another even louder clap of thunder nearly shook the house.


	34. Chapter 34

Sam had cried himself to sleep by the time Gabriel appeared in their bedroom a few hours later. His heart broke as he saw the dried tear tracks on his lover’s face and had to fight back his own. He climbed gently in bed and pulled Sam close, unsure whether to wake him up or let him sleep and talk to him later. The decision was taken out of his hands though as Sam rolled over and latched onto him like he was afraid he’d disappear. “You came back,” he whispered. 

Gabriel lost the battle with his own tears at that. “Of course I came back Samshine. I’m so sorry.”

“M’sorry,” Sam slurred from where his face was buried in Gabriel’s chest. 

“I was never mad at you Sammy. Annoyed sure, but not mad. It was just everything crashing down at once. I just had to get away for a while before I blew. I’m so sorry I hurt you,” Gabriel said holding him tightly. 

“I was afraid you weren’t coming back,” Sam said sadly. 

“I will never, ever leave you my sweet Samshine. No matter how many mistakes you make,” he said sincerely before he was silenced by a desperate kiss. Gabriel sank happily into it and when they broke apart for air Gabriel said, “You’re mine Sammy. Forever. No matter what. Never forget that.”

Sam nodded and then said, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Gabriel sighed. “Want to? No. Need to? Yeah.” Gabriel knew all too well what came of bottling things up inside. 

At that point though Sylvi started crying. “Hold that thought,” Sam said as he started to get up. 

Gabriel grabbed his wrist before he could get up. “I got her.” He went and brought her to Sam cooing happily at her all the way. 

Once she was settled and feeding Gabriel sat back down on the bed. Sam pulled him down so that his head was in the hunter’s lap and started running his free hand through the archangel’s hair. “Talk,” Sam said gently. 

“I mean, it’s not like I really wanted to go home anyway, but it was always an option you know, but then my father shows up, out of the blue, after millennia of no contact whatsoever, just to tell me he’s disappointed in me and not only am I cut off, but they’ve moved and won’t tell me where. And that’s after spending a whole day thinking my entire family was dead,” Gabriel said sadly. “And then he called you my pets and said I should be thanking him, and it just all piled up, and then you spilling my secrets was just the last straw you know?”

“I’m sorry Gabe. Really I am.”

“I know you are, and like I said. I wasn’t mad at you. Not really. It was an accident. You were pissed and blowing off steam and it just came out. It’s not like you went gossiping behind my back purposefully or anything. But if it makes you feel any better, you’re forgiven Sammy. Always will be.”

“Thanks Gabe.”

“But the kicker is as I’m walking out there, trying to calm down, I remembered what you told me. This is my home now. You are my family. I don’t need them. And I realized that he was right. I should be thanking him. He left me in peace with my real family. He didn’t even shut heaven down so I could keep my powers. I’m not gonna thank him of course, because he was kind of a dick about it, but still. I have everything I’ve ever wanted right here and I was just being stupid.”

“No, Gabriel. You weren’t being stupid. Whatever else you have, he’s still your father. It’s perfectly reasonable to want him to care. Being cut off from your family always hurts, no matter how much time or distance there has been in the past. Whether it turned out for the best or not, he still abandoned you and you have every right to be upset about it,” Sam told him. 

“Maybe. But you know me. I never let anything keep me down for long. I’m not going to stay upset when I have so many things to be thankful for, and so much joy in my life.”

“Good. I’m glad,” Sam said with a smile. “That uncrushable spirit of yours is one of the things I love the most about you.”

“You mean it’s not my gorgeous ass?” Gabriel asked with a laugh. 

“I said one of the things,” Sam pointed out laughing along with him. 

“Thanks for listening Sammy, but I need to either get up off your lap or change Sylvi’s diaper before I gag.”

Sam let go of his head laughing even harder. “She’s almost done and then you can have at the diaper,” he said as Gabriel sat up. 

Once Sylvi was back in her crib, Gabriel climbed back into bed next to Sam. “So Sammy. What do you say we get started on the next baby? My turn to be pregnant this time.”

“Sylvi’s only three months old,” Sam pointed out. 

“Exactly. So she will be about a year old by the time the next one comes along,” Gabriel said. 

“Yeah ok,” Sam said with a grin and before he knew it there was a gorgeous woman in his bed kissing him. After a few minutes though Sam pulled back. “I’m sorry Gabe. This isn’t working.” He knew it was Gabriel, but his body didn’t seem to get the hint and didn’t want to participate. 

Gabriel saw the problem. No matter what form Sam was in, he would always be able to see Sam, but Sam had no such powers. He loved the fact that Sam was so faithful to him, but it definitely didn’t come in handy at the moment. “What can I do?” he asked, hoping there was a way around this. 

“I don’t know. Maybe look more like you?” Sam asked. Gabriel had chosen his favorite female form, which incidentally didn’t look much at all like his real form. 

“You sure Sammy? I make a pretty ugly girl,” he said amused. 

“You could never be ugly to me Gabe,” Sam said softly so Gabriel shrugged and shifted shape again. His face looked exactly the same minus the stubble, but his hair was slightly longer and his body was more boyish and barely feminine at all. That seemed to do the trick though. It still wasn’t as easy as it was sleeping with Gabriel as a man, but he managed. He hoped he would get used to it in time. 

The next morning, they came downstairs and Dean burst into laughter at the sight of female Gabriel. “Yeah yeah, yuck it up,” Gabriel said good-naturedly giving a little spin to show himself off. 

Once he had stopped laughing quite so hard he said, “So are you two trying for another baby or is this just some kind of weird kinky thing you like.”

“Another baby,” Sam said. 

“How many are you planning to have?” Dean asked warily. 

Gabriel grinned, “Well I was thinking six or seven this time around and we can go for more in a few decades once they are all grown up.”

Sam started choking on his breakfast when Gabriel said six or seven. Gabriel absentmindedly reached over to pat his back. “Six or seven?” he croaked. 

“Sure. Why not. We have forever after all to rest and relax afterwards and we do have to repopulate the world,” Gabriel said with a grin. He hoped Sam would agree. He wanted tons of children, but he knew better than to throw too much at the hunter all at once. 

“How about we just go with this one for now, and figure out the rest later?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“Sure thing Sammich,” Gabriel said easily leaning down for a kiss. He would have plenty of time to convince him. 

Four months later, on Ami’s second birthday, Gabriel pulled Sam aside that evening and told him, “You know how I mentioned that since I’m carrying the baby this time I won’t be able to help knowing the sex?” Sam nodded. “Did you decide if you want to know?”

“Yeah. I think I do. I mean, if you know then there’s no point in me being surprised,” Sam said looking expectantly at his lover. 

“Well congratulations Daddy. It’s a both!” 

“Huh?” Sam said inelegantly. 

“Twins Sammy. A boy and a girl,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

Sam’s face broke out in a grin too, “Twins?” he confirmed. Gabriel nodded and Sam picked him up and swung him around. “Can we go tell the others?” he asked excitedly. 

“Course Samsquatch. Just wanted to tell you first.”

Dean and Kali were both happy for them as well. Seemed that Gabriel was getting his wish for lots of kids and if Sam’s reaction was anything to go by he was certainly warming up to the idea. 

 

Sam was beyond nervous for the delivery. It would be his first time delivering a baby period and the fact that it was his own was nerve-wracking. Gabriel was very patient though, explaining what to do and how to do it as many times as Sam wanted and showed miraculous self-control by not pointing out that he had the hard job after all. All Sam had to do was catch. Of course, it was more than that really, because Gabriel knew that he may be too exhausted to snap them into shape after the birth so there was a good chance that Sam would have to cut the cords and clean them up on his own. 

Gabriel had attached another nursery to the other side of their bedroom, knowing that now that Sylvi was sleeping through the night, it wouldn’t be wise to put two newborns in the same nursery, but not quite ready for Sylvi to get her own separated room. 

Everyone marveled at how huge Gabriel was. He was much bigger than either Sam or Kali had been in their pregnancies, but he was carrying twins after all. When Gabriel went into labor Sam rushed him off to the bedroom and Gabriel laughed between contractions at the fact that he was the one trying to keep Sam calm. Despite Sam’s worries though, the labor went off without a hitch. Gabriel would have been able to tell if there was anything wrong of course. 

When Sam settled next to an exhausted, and finally male again, Gabriel, handing him their son while he kept their daughter, they got to the names. They had done it much the same as last time. Gabriel was to pick the first name for the boy and the middle name for the girl, and Sam got the middle name for the boy and the first name for the girl. “Let’s start with the boy. What’s his first name?” Sam asked. 

“Camael. One of the only brothers I had that I liked,” Gabriel said with a smile.

“I love it,” Sam said kissing Gabriel softly. “His middle name is Gabriel,” he added with a smug grin. They had talked and Gabriel had asked him not to name any more after his other kids. Once was sweet, but more than that was a little much. He had waffled on the name for a bit, since Ami’s middle name was Gabrielle, but decided that it would be okay. 

Gabriel smirked with the air of one who is about to drop a bombshell but he would wait for his turn. “So what’s our baby girl’s first name?” 

“Deanna,” Sam said with a smirk of his own. He wanted to honor the one person who had been there for him his entire life, and the fact that it was also his maternal grandmother’s name was a bonus. The fact that Dean would pout about having a girl named after him was also a bonus, but he knew that his brother would be honored despite his reaction. 

“Deanna Samantha then,” Gabriel said as his smirk widened. Sam couldn’t help but chuckle. Seemed Gabriel had the same idea as both of his put together. He definitely wasn’t going to rise to the occasion and make a fuss over the feminine form of his name for their daughter. 

They cuddled with their children for a little while and Gabriel fed them. Sam had just got Sylvi weaned so thankfully they didn’t have three children nursing at once. Sam had offered to give her another week so that he could help Gabriel with the twins, but Gabriel waved him off. He would be fine. The first day, while he was recovering would be difficult, but beyond that he wouldn’t need to sleep or anything so it wouldn’t really matter. Once they were finished eating Sam kissed Gabriel’s forehead and said, “I’ll let you get some rest and go introduce them to the rest of the family.”

 

When Sam introduced the new babies to Dean and Kali, as expected Dean groaned at his niece’s name, but everyone could tell it was half-hearted at best. He laughed at her middle name though. Both of the other little one’s were enamored with the new babies. “We can keep Sylvi tonight and give you guys some time. I know Gabriel must be exhausted,” Kali offered.

“Thanks Kali. I know the girls would probably love a sleepover,” he said gratefully.


	35. Chapter 35

Four years later:

Ami was six, Sylvi was five and the first set of twins were four. Sam and Gabriel also had another set of twins, identical boys, that were three. Sam had carried them. Then Gabriel carried their two-year-old daughter. Sam their one-year-old son. And Gabriel had just given birth to another set of identical twin daughters a few weeks ago. Dean and Kali also had another son who was now two, so all told they had eleven children between them, the oldest being six. Gabriel was in heaven. 

Gabriel sidled up next to his lover, “So Sammy…” he started in that suggestive voice of his. 

“No. Absolutely not. Not gonna happen,” Sam said firmly. 

“But Sammy,” Gabriel pouted. 

“You said six or seven. I gave you nine. Talk to me again in about fifty years and we’ll see,” Sam said trying not to smile. He was all for a big family and loved all of his children dearly, but he was only human. There were only so many he could keep up with. 

Sam was saved by the bell, or the kid as the case may be, as Sylvi was suddenly bounding towards them, “Papa! Papa! Look what I can do!” 

Gabriel squatted and scooped her up in the arm that wasn’t holding a baby. “What can you do angel?” he asked interestedly. 

“Look!” she said as she snapped her fingers and a chocolate bar appeared and she held it out to her papa. 

“That’s great Sylvi! I don’t seem to have any free hands at the moment though. Maybe you could open it for me?” he asked her indulgently. He and Kali had started gradually pulling back their control over the little one’s powers when they turned five and started teaching them to use them and control them. Ami found that she had control over both fire and water, which was a strange combination, but made for a lot of fun in splash fights. Sylvi was just now learning how to conjure small things. Much to Kali’s irritation they had both picked up the finger snap from Gabriel. They really didn’t need any gestures to get the job done, but Gabriel was always one for showmanship. 

As Sylvi fed Gabriel the chocolate bar she had snapped up Sam smiled proudly at her sliding his baby free arm around Gabriel. “I’m so proud of you Sylvi, but you know that there’s no candy for you unless you ask first right?”

“I know Daddy,” she said impatiently. “This one is for Papa,” she explained uselessly. Meanwhile Gabriel was trying to keep a straight face and when he was finished with it she asked, “Do you want another one?”

“No. No it’s okay sweetheart. Why don’t you try snapping up some toys if you want to practice?” he said quickly as he set her down and she ran off to play. 

Sam looked at Gabriel curiously. “I’ve never known you to turn down candy.”

Gabriel grimaced. “Well she’s got the packaging right, but the taste needs work,” he said as he snapped up a soda to wash the taste down with and Sam laughed long and hard, as his forehead fell forward onto Gabriel’s shoulder. 

 

10 years later:

 

Dean and Kali had one more daughter after their son Bobby. She was five years old now. They were spacing them out more as opposed to Sam and Gabriel who had gotten them all out at once. True to Sam’s word their now ten-year-old twins Anastasia and Briana had been their last. At least for now. Ami was the strongest of Dean and Kali’s children and Gabriel theorized that it was because Kali had been disconnected from her powers when she was pregnant so Ami was feeding from them as well as her own innate powers. She was closer to Gabriel’s power level than Kali’s, whereas their other two were nearly Kali’s level. 

All of Sam and Gabriel’s children were at the same level, slightly below Gabriel’s own, though they all had their unique skills and talents. Now that they were older Gabriel decided it was time to bring up leaving the island. “So I was thinking. There’s a whole world out there that needs to be cleaned up and rebuilt. Now that the kids are older I was thinking we could go out a few days a week and start working on it?”

“What were you thinking?” Sam asked curiously. Other than the house, they had no structures or technology in their lives so he doubted that Gabriel meant rebuilding all the buildings and structures, not to mention that they would all be useless now.

“I think that’s for all of us to decide,” he said. 

“You must have some thoughts and you’ve obviously given it more consideration than we have so let’s hear your ideas and we’ll go from there,” Dean said.

“Well I have a couple actually. One, we can keep the current landmasses and just get rid of all the debris and rebuild them back to their natural habitats. Or we could just get rid of all of them and start from scratch here, building onto this island or building more islands as needed.”

They all thought for a few minutes before Kali said, “Why can’t we do both?” When the others looked at her curiously she explained what she was thinking. “Why don’t we rebuild the current landmasses, or most of them at least, and have them as nature preserves and such. It would be nice to have animals back in the world again, and then we can build onto this island or add more for our families to live on.”

“That’s a great idea Kali,” Sam said impressed. He supposed as a goddess though she would have been feeling the loss of nature more than the rest. 

Dean just pulled her close beaming with pride, and Gabriel said, “It really is Kali. Good thinking. I hadn’t even thought of animals. The whole exercise would be good for the kids too. Allow them to get more used to their powers and using them on a larger scale.”

So two days a week, the four adults and twelve children made a trip to the mainland, starting with the US and worked to rebuild. Not that Sam and Dean did much besides watch and help coach the kids, who did most of the work, Kali and Gabriel mostly focusing on tidying up after them. The children of the destroyer got rid of what was there before and the part archangel’s worked on recreating plant and animal life from what they had seen and read in the books that Gabriel had snapped up for them. If some of the plants and animals ended up purple or yellow or blue though no one said anything and just let the kids be as creative as they wanted to be. It was their world now after all. 

It took a few years to get all the landmasses fixed up and by then the first couple among the children had emerged as Gabriel had walked in on Ami and Camael kissing. He backed out slowly not being noticed by them, but felt the need to warn the others before an incident was caused. Ami was nineteen and Camael was seventeen so they were old enough to make their own decisions and he was prepared to argue that point. Thankfully, the two human members of the family had become more comfortable with the idea over the years, but that didn’t make it any easier to accept the fact that their babies were all grown up. 

 

Thirty years later:

 

All the kids had decided to have their own islands nearby instead of building onto the current one. There was only one more couple among them though as Anastasia and Bobby had fallen in love. They, along with Ami and Camael, shared an island. They enjoyed being close to their parents without being in their laps all the time. Gabriel had snapped up a boat so that Sam and Dean didn’t have to rely on anyone else if they wanted to visit their children but even the ones with powers enjoyed using the boat for recreation so a few more got snapped up too. 

Even though all the kids were leaving, the two original couples had become so used to being together that they decided not to split up. Even when the grandchildren started coming around. 

Gabriel sidled up to Sam one day while they were sitting on the beach. “So Sammy…”

Sam grinned at him. “My turn this time,” was all he said and that night they started on the next batch of children.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the story, but I will be posting an appendix with the family trees for anyone who is curious since I didn't get to work all the kid's names into the story.


	36. Chapter 36

Dean and Kali’s children:  
Amrithadi Gabrielle (girl)  
Robert (Bobby) Gopan (boy)  
Mary Nitya (girl)

Sam and Gabriel’s children:  
Sylvi Helen (girl)  
Camael Gabriel and Deanna Samantha (twins, boy and girl)  
Taavi Jordan and Evan Macario (twin boys)  
Paisley Marie (girl)  
Adam Johnathon (boy)  
Anastasia McKenzie and Briana Katrina (twin girls)

Ami and Camael’s children:  
Jaylen Stewart (boy)  
Charise Lynn (girl)  
Brandt James (boy)

Anastasia and Bobby’s children:  
Marina Hope (girl)  
Dalton Ricardo and Maurice Charles (twin boys)

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end of the story, but I will be posting an appendix with the family trees for anyone who is curious since I didn't get to work all the kid's names into the story.


End file.
